As the Story Develops
by alterocentrist
Summary: After a decade working abroad, Arizona accepts a position as the executive producer of America in Focus, HANCA's flagship current affairs show. Her new colleagues are intrigued by the history she shares with the network's star anchor. Grey's Anatomy newsroom AU.
1. The New EP

**Author's Note: **I'm a giant fan of the HBO show _The Newsroom_, but I'm also a huge fan of the work dynamic the characters have in _Grey's Anatomy_. So I thought, why not put the two together? I'm gauging the feedback for this at first, so the next update probably won't in another two weeks. This will also be posted concurrently on AO3 beginning next week.

* * *

**Monday, 8.00AM**

It was eight in the morning in New York City. Many people were already awake before then. They were out on the streets in swarms. They were descending underground, out of sight, into subway stations. They were buying their morning coffee. They were reading the newspaper. They were settling into their bus seats, putting their earphones in.

It was eight in the morning in New York City, and Callie Torres was just waking up. She willed herself to get out of her king-sized bed - which was, admittedly, far too big - and get into exercise clothing. She opened her bedroom door and inhaled the scent of coffee wafting over from the kitchen. That automated coffee maker was a great investment. Grabbing an apple and filling her travel mug with coffee, she headed out the doorway, across the hall to her neighbor - and unfortunately for her, colleague - Mark Sloan's apartment.

"Sloan!" She banged on the door. "Want to come to the gym with me?"

It took a good minute before she heard the sound of locks clicking. The door swung open, revealing a tall, muscular man with curly salt and pepper hair. His impressive physique was highlighted by the fact that he was wearing nothing but a pair of striped blue boxers. "Morning, Torres," he drawled, gray-blue eyes glinting. "I'm afraid you caught me a bad at time."

"You've got a woman in there, haven't you?" Callie demanded.

Mark waved her off. "Oh, come on, keep your voice down. She's still sleeping."

"Mark!" Callie exhaled frustratedly. "You told me you'd come to the gym with me."

"I know that, but," Mark lowered his voice, "I already did my workout, if you know what I mean."

Callie rolled her eyes and walked towards the elevators. "I'll see you at work?"

"Aren't we sharing a cab?"

She jabbed the down button before whirling around. "Yeah, but first of all, you're disgusting. Second of all, you're a terrible friend. And third of all, you're disgusting," she enumerated. "So yes, we will be sharing a cab, but we will not be talking, nor will we be looking at each other. Because you're a horrible friend." The elevator arrived and she stepped inside.

"Callie! It's just for today!" Mark called after her.

* * *

**11.00AM**

Richard Webber stared amusedly at the restless blonde sitting across from him. "I'm not one to take punctuality for granted, but you're awfully early," he told her. "You're aware that your work day doesn't start until midday, right?"

"I'm just…" the blonde's eyes shifted towards the ceiling, before returning to meet Webber's, "excited. I can't wait to get started."

"Aren't you jetlagged?"

"I don't get jetlagged."

Webber scoffed. "Arizona."

"Maybe just a little bit," Arizona said. "When am I meeting Derek?"

"At midday, with the rest of the team, like we discussed," Webber said.

"Do I get a chance to talk to him alone? I'd like to talk to him about my vision for the show."

"I'm sure you will get a chance to do that." Webber was astonished at her enthusiasm. "In the meantime, why don't I get my secretary to get you some coffee and watch TV, make yourself comfortable, here? I have a meeting with the breakfast team that I'm already late for. I'll come back before twelve to take you to the newsroom myself."

"My staff shares a newsroom with eight o'clock, right?"

Webber nodded. "Well, you will have a smaller staff so it just makes sense that way. Also, I like the two teams working in the same environment. The two programs both emerge having a greater sense of purpose that way," he said. "Why do you ask?"

"Just asking." Arizona shrugged. "You should go to your meeting."

"I will." He stood up and straightened his suit jacket. "Do you want anything?"

Arizona looked more uncomfortable than excited for the first time since she arrived that morning. "Can you ask your secretary to send some donuts and a bottle of the pulpiest orange juice?"

"Donuts," Webber repeated.

"Chocolate with rainbow sprinkles. A half dozen."

"Seriously?" When the blonde's face remained deadpan, he sighed and walked out of the room. "Patricia," he addressed his secretary. "Can you please send up a half dozen chocolate rainbow donuts and the pulpiest orange juice some intern can find up to Ms Robbins as soon as you can?"

* * *

**1.00PM**

Owen Hunt watched everyone assume their seats in the conference room from his place at the head of the long table. Teddy, his senior producer, was already on his right, tapping keys on her laptop. When everyone was seated quietly, Owen cleared his throat. "Morning everyone," he said. "What have you got for me?"

"I'm sharing you the document with the rundown for the breakfast bulletin, the rundown for he midday bulletin and the proposed rundown for the five o'clock news hour," Teddy said. "You can look at the overlaps and see what's worth tackling."

The tablet on Owen's lap beeped. He turned the screen on and opened the document. "Who thinks we need to cover more of the debt ceiling?" he asked the team.

One of the APs, Meredith Grey, raised her pen. "We already have an economics professor for NYU on call if we decide to include it in tonight's rundown."

Owen wasn't convinced. Callie and Mark, the anchors, walked in the room. "Just in time, you two!" he said, as they sat in chairs next to him.

"Settle something for me: do you think we're spending too much time talking about the debt ceiling?"

"Isn't it either that or the launch of _Grand Theft Auto XV_ tomorrow morning?" Mark asked.

Shane Ross, a recently promoted AP, spoke up from the end of the table. "It's five, actually."

Mark frowned. "Excuse me?"

"It's the fifth _Grand Theft Auto_, not the fifteenth."

"Oh, whoops," Mark said good-naturedly. "Don't tell anyone about that. I take pride in being current."

"Moving on," Owen said. "Callie? Debt ceiling or what?"

"I think we should devote the A block to Syria," she replied.

Owen clapped. He and Teddy shared a smile. "Now we're talking. What kind of coverage are we thinking about?"

"Well, Obama and Putin have reached a deal regarding chemical weapons in Syria, and that was over the weekend so every other network will be talking about that, and so should we," Callie said. "We'll need an international relations expert, a chemical weapons expert and anything that's coming out from the White House about it. We'll also need some footage."

"I'm sure we'll be able to pull some from the wires. Teddy, get in touch with your army contacts. April, get in touch with the first foreign policy expert available," Owen said. "That's the A block."

"And then debt ceiling at the top of B?" Meredith offered hopefully. "Also, the budget that Obama's trying to pass through Congress, too."

"How important is that, really?"

"Potentially very important. The GOP is threatening to make good on their promise to shut down the government. Last time that happened was seventeen years ago, and it wasn't pretty." Meredith pointed at the woman sitting at the back of the room. "Bailey, isn't your show thinking of covering it? How's that going for you?"

"Derek wants to but I don't think it'll be until Robert leaves," Bailey replied.

Teddy leaned forward, eager to catch the gossip. "When is Robert leaving?" Bailey's EP had just accepted a post at CBS News. "And have you found a replacement?"

"Webber and Derek have found one. Derek's meeting with her now," Bailey told her.

"A _her_!" Mark exclaimed. "At least this one won't offend your feminist sensibilities, Bailey."

Bailey scowled and crossed her arms. "I feel like she'll offend my sensibilities, period. I met her before she went in to have her private chat with Derek. She looks and sounds like a hyperactive college freshman."

"Okay, let's get back on track, please," Owen cut in. "I'm sure we'll all have the chance to meet nine o'clock's new EP later. Do you think we should follow up on what happened with the US consulate in Herat?"

* * *

"Derek, I'm going to need you to forget everything you know about doing this show, because it won't be the show people will be tuning into their TV in two weeks," Arizona told him. "If you've got a list of stories you intend to follow, I'd like to see it so I can gut about three-fourths of it."

"Why's that?"

Arizona took a deep breath. "_America in Focus_ has the potential to be a great current affairs programme, but it's not. It's currently a soft news magazine masquerading as a current affairs programme."

"I didn't hire you to tell me that I'm doing a bad show, Arizona." Derek Shepherd was mildly irritated. Maybe it was just his journalistic ego, because he was well aware that Arizona pulled no punches, but he was suddenly dreading the beginning of her tenure as her EP.

"No, you hired me to make your show better," Arizona reasoned calmly. "And it's not your own fault that you're just presenting a rehash of _60 Minutes_ right now. Besides, I'm not saying that it's a bad show, I'm just saying that you need the right producer. That's where I come in."

"Oh really?"

"Stark's too old school. He doesn't know what to do with someone like you."

Derek scowled. "What do you mean, someone like me?"

"New England old money WASP, prep school, Ivy League. Your first gig was as a BBC reporter, and you're not even British. You're not very likable to the common American," she responded matter-of-factly.

"Thanks," he muttered sarcastically.

Arizona was having none of it. "Stark has been coddling you, Derek. His transfer to CBS will only do your show wonders. It's time to revamp _America in Focus_. No more human interest stories about some average joe unable to pay his health insurance. We're going to do policy stories with a human focus."

"Isn't that the same thing?"

"The former makes the audience want to feel sorry for these unfortunate people," Arizona said. "The latter shows how the government is failing these people, and why they shouldn't be. We're going to talk about how the federal government's inability to protect the health of its workers is affecting the average joe, and if it's affecting the average joe, who the hell knows who else it affects?"

Derek considered it. "I feel like this is seriously going back on what JFK said. 'Don't ask what your country can do for you-'"

"'Ask what you can do for your country,'" Arizona finished for him. "Well, that's bullshit. Most Americans work hard every day to keep this country going and wouldn't it be nice to get some appreciation from their government?"

"You just called JFK bullshit."

Arizona waved him off. "I actually don't give a damn about his New England WASP, prep school, Ivy League ass, but I care about yours, and I care about not making it look uncaring and out of touch."

"The Kennedys are Catholic."

"I honestly couldn't care less!"

"You're not my EP yet, you know," Derek said. "For the next two weeks you have to put up with Robert deciding my rundown, and you not being able to do anything about it."

"I can pull strings. You wanna talk about gun control? Voter ID? The government shutting down in two weeks?" Arizona asked him. "I'll tell the president of HANCA to tell Stark to do it."

Derek shook his head. "I already asked Webber to do that last week, but Robert vetoed. Right now, he's arranging for HANCA affiliates in Denver to get us some interviews for what's going on with the flooding," he told her. "He plans for it to take up the A block and half of the B, and he's planning to devote the whole week to flood stories."

"You better be joking." Arizona's voice was low and unbelieving.

Derek laughed mirthlessly. "I wish I was."

* * *

**3:00PM**

Arizona emerged from her first rundown meeting. She hadn't worked with Robert Stark before, but she noticed his reputation for being safe and conservative with his journalism. The senior producer, Miranda Bailey, seemed to struggle to warm up to her, while the APs looked excited - if not impressed - by her presence.

Webber caught her coming out of the conference room. "Hey, what do you think of your new team?"

She shrugged pleasantly. "They look like a capable bunch, that's for sure. And I had a good talk with Derek just before the meeting about how I'm shifting the direction of the show," she was going to say some more, but Webber draped his arm lightly around her shoulder and steered her to the middle of the control room.

"I'll hear it later on, but let's introduce you to your friendly neighbours at eight o'clock first, shall we? Everyone!" The people working in the newsroom looked up expectantly. "I'd like to introduce to all of you, Arizona Robbins. She will be _America in Focus_'s new EP, taking over for Robert in two weeks. Please be nice to her, she hasn't lived in the States in ten years."

Arizona gave a little wave. "Hey, everyone," she said. "I'm looking forward to starting."

"Looks like I was just in time for the introductions!" A tall, thin woman with long, dark blonde hair approached her. "Welcome aboard to HANCA. Do you remember me?"

She did look familiar. "Let me guess…"

The woman smiled. "Baghdad, 2005. I was embedded with the army?"

"Altman!" Arizona exclaimed, remembering. "Teddy Altman."

"Yeah! How's your big brother?" Teddy looked at Webber and explained. "Arizona's brother was in the unit Owen and I were embedded with in Baghdad, and eventually Afghanistan. Kept bragging about his journalist sister from the BBC. Then Arizona comes to Baghdad with a team to cover the election for half a week."

"Tim's great," Arizona replied. "He's having fun with his job at the Pentagon."

"That's awesome!" Teddy said. "Have you met Owen yet?" Her eyes scanned the room.

"I think Owen's working in his office," Webber supplied.

"Owen!" Teddy yelled out. Several APs jumped in their seats.

Owen walked briskly out of his office doors, looking momentarily confused until his eyes landed on Arizona. "Hey, it's little Robbins!" he said brightly. "Long time, huh?" He shook Arizona's hand.

"Eight years, last I counted," Arizona deadpanned.

"And we finally get to work with you. Let's see if Tim's bragging has some substance."

* * *

Callie was doing her own research on the Syria affair when she heard Webber's voice booming outside. Teddy's voice joined his soon after, and then finally, Owen's rushing footsteps out of his office made her suspicious. She got to her feet. There has to be a breaking news alert or something.

When she stepped into the bullpen, she was surprised to see everyone going calmly about her business, with the exception of Webber, Teddy, Owen and a woman who was obscured from her sight by Owen's body. She was curious to see who it was, until she heard her laugh. She'd know that laugh anywhere. "Arizona?" she blurted out.

Owen and Teddy turned to look at her, and Callie's guess was confirmed. Her hair was shorter than when she last saw her ten years ago, but it was still the same shade of blonde. She looked a little older, obviously, but her sapphire-coloured eyes still shined like they did. "Calliope," she said affectionately, her face breaking into that same smile.

Callie was tempted to revert back to ten years ago and melt on the spot at the sound of her name being spoken that way. But then she caught herself. "Arizona. What are you doing here?"

"I'm the new EP for_ America in Focus_."

"Oh." Callie could feel the colour draining from her face.

"You two know each other? That's great!" Webber was delighted. "Your transition into this newsroom will be easier than I initially thought."

"We met when we were both working in DC. It was a long time ago," Callie said. We watched Arizona break eye contact with her. Half the confidence she had seemed to have disappeared.

"Hey, Callie, if it's all right with you, Arizona's coming to our final rundown meeting and is going to be in the control room with us tonight, just to observe," Owen told her. He, too, looked ridiculously cheerful.

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine." Callie jerked her thumb at her office door. "I was actually busy, I just wanted to know what was going on. But yeah, observe, by all means."

"Okay, we won't keep you," Owen said.

"Okay. I'll talk to you guys later." Callie made her way inside her office and made sure that the door was closed. She sat down at her desk and buried her face in her hands. Arizona Robbins had not only returned, but now, she was on her turf. Yet it has already started to feel less like that.

* * *

Webber had to take a call in his office, while Teddy called the eight o'clock staff for their next rundown meeting, while Owen met with graphics. Arizona was left wandering aimlessly around the newsroom, introducing herself to the small team that was left behind. The computer screen of a surly, dark-haired man caught her attention. She leaned forward to look over his shoulder. "Hey, do you wanna email that to me?" She reached inside her blazer pocket to pull out a business card when she stumbled backwards.

A hand shot out to grip her by the wrist, steadying her. "Shit! I'm sorry," the man said. He checked that Arizona was perfectly balanced before he released her grip. "You just gave me a fright."

"I'm just looking at what you're reading. That's on the potential government shutdown, right?"

"It's not a potential shutdown," the man corrected. "The government is going to shut down."

Arizona stared at him. "So, it's not a question of if, but when?"

"Exactly that."

"Aren't you supposed to be doing something else right now?"

He hesitated, before nodding. "Yeah, but seriously, the Colorado story doesn't need a lot of work in the studio. We're just waiting for the package to get sent. I'd rather do this than twiddle my thumbs."

Arizona briefly glanced at the headline of the article he was reading. "What do you know?"

"That calling it a 'government shutdown' is a misnomer," he replied. "The services that are going to be shut down are non-essential services. That's museums, national parks, tourist activities around DC, but it's also..." he paused and bit his lip.

"Things like what?" Arizona prompted.

"Army base commissaries, domestic violence help services and the WIC programme."

"The WIC programme?" she repeated. "The Women, Infants and Children program? Are you sure about this?"

He shrugged. "That's just what I've read. It's not so much a government shutdown as a public service shutdown."

"What's your name?"

"Alex Karev. I'm an associate producer for _America in Focus_."

Arizona shook his hand. "So I've gathered, Alex," she said. "Email these links to me. My email address is on the card - IT here has got to set me up with a work address, so yeah, that should do. Anyway, email these links to me, I'll dig around in my contacts and get back to you."

"Wait, I do get to produce this story, right? You're not going to lift it out my hands."

"I'm not that kind of EP, Alex. I'm too lazy for that. I'll find out some more stuff for you but it'll be entirely up to you afterwards. Do check in with me if you're not sure of something, though," Arizona said. "When the shutdown happens, whatever you come up with will be top of the A block."

"A block." Alex looked amazed. "Seriously?"

"Yup. Keep it on the down low and don't tell Stark, though. We don't want to get in trouble."

"Other people would just throw me under the bus."

"Alex." Arizona smiled. "I'm not that kind of EP." She tapped the business card on Alex's desk. "Email the stuff to me."

* * *

**5:00PM**

Mark entered Callie's office just in time to watch the five o'clock newshour with her. "Torres, you okay?" He had noticed that his best friend and co-anchor had looked dazed during their three-thirty rundown meeting.

Callie's eyes didn't leave the screen. "I'm not looking forward to the last rundown meeting."

Mark looked at her sympathetically. "Mondayitis?"

"No. Derek's new EP is sitting in." Callie sighed.

Mark sat on a chair by the window. "Arizona? Teddy told me about her. She sounded really excited. Apparently Webber managed to poach her from the BBC? I'm starting to think that man has too much power." He noticed that Callie's frown was deepening. "Oh, you're not a big fan."

"Bad vibe. Bailey doesn't feel too good about her, either."

"She won a Peabody." Mark said. "And was shortlisted for a Pulitzer."

Callie scoffed. "You know that's not the same as _winning_ a Pulitzer."

"You're one to talk." Mark snorted. "You haven't even been shortlisted for a Pulitzer. The point is, she's clearly very good at her job and Webber believes that, Derek believes that. Teddy is over the moon to be working with her. I know she's a stranger in our newsroom but we have to learn how to trust her eventually."

"You don't understand, Mark." The finality in Callie's voice signified the end of the conversation, but Mark wasn't going to let it go.

"Wait, Teddy said Arizona worked for the DC bureau of the BBC." Mark stroked his chin, a new glint in his eye. "Did you two _know_ each other?" He smiled mischievously.

"Mark.""No, Callie, seriously, I want to know the history you have with Arizona Robbins."

Callie folded her arms across her chest. "It's really none of your business, but we were professional rivals. We were on the Al Gore campaign bus and we just absolutely_ loathed_ each other. Then we both ended up in DC afterwards. That's it, really."

"Really?" Mark's eyebrows shot up.

"Really." Callie's attention went back to the television. "I want to watch the news, so either you can stop gossiping about Arizona and stay here, or you can leave and find someone else to share crazy theories with."

* * *

** 8:30PM**

"Callie," Owen said through the mouthpiece of his headset, "ask her to clarify the consequences of Congress not voting to raise the debt ceiling. In layman's terms. Tap your pen if you copy."

On the screen in the control room, Callie tapped her pen. "Professor Hall, can you tell us what the direct effects of not raising the debt ceiling is for the average American citizen?" she asked.

"Not raising the debt ceiling would effectively mean that the government may run out of money to settle its debts, and that has severe repercussions for us all," Professor Hall started. "For example, Social Security payments to senior citizens may need to stop, and so would people relying on Medicare and Medicaid. Interest rates will shoot up, making it harder for both the business owner and their employee to get loans from the bank."

"Pivot to the shutdown," Owen said.

"So, if the government shuts down, would we be in danger of hitting the debt ceiling?"

"Yes," Professor Hall replied. "And not only would we be faced with millions of Americans suddenly losing support from the government, but we'd also have somewhere around seven hundred to nine hundred thousand government employees would be put on unpaid furlough."

Owen turned around to look at Teddy. "Fact check," he mouthed.

Teddy nodded and got on it right away.

"It's true," Arizona spoke up. She was huddled in the corner of the control room, but her eyes were actively flitting around, taking everything in. "Give me a writing pad?" Teddy handed her one. She quickly scribbled something, ripped the sheet off and gave it to Owen. "Feed these figures to them."

Owen's eyes widened as he read what Arizona wrote. "Mark," on screen, the other anchor straightened up when Owen addressed him. "Bring this up: since Congress members are still getting paid, it's a public service shutdown, not a government one. Nod if you copy."

Mark nodded, then relayed the information Owen gave him. Professor Hall agreed, and expanded upon his statement.

"Nice one. Where did you get that from?" Owen asked Arizona. HIs hand was covering his mouthpiece.

"One of the nine o'clock's APs showed me some articles he found on it" she replied. "His name's Alex, make sure to thank him later."

"Duly noted." Owen continued to guide Callie and Mark through the interview with Professor Hall for the next few minutes. "Okay, we'll go to break in thirty seconds, wrap it up. Mark?"

"Well, that's all we have for tonight. Thank you for coming, professor."

The woman smiled graciously. "Thank you for having me."

"Pull Professor Hall out of the shot," Owen said.

Mark and Callie turned their chairs simultaneously towards another camera. "That was Professor Jasmine Hall from the City University of New York's economics department," Mark said. "After the break, we'll be following up with the situation in Colorado. Stay tuned."

* * *

**9.00PM**

After the eight o'clock ended, Arizona jogged over to the nine o'clock's control room. Derek was already behind the camera in the studio, fiddling with his tie and lapel mic one last time, while Stark was scrolling on his tablet to have a final check at the rundown. He looked up and smiled when he noticed Arizona's presence. "Great, you're here. Okay, guys," he addressed the control room, "let's show Arizona how we do it."

"Roll in," the technical director said.

The opening theme played, and Derek looked up at the camera, a half-smile on his face as he waited for his cue. "Good evening. I'm Derek Shepherd, and this is_ America in Focus_. Tonight we bring to you several stories from the people affected in the flooding in Boulder, Colorado…"

* * *

**9:45PM**

"After the break, we'll be checking out what's going on outside of Gamestop downtown, where hundreds of people are camping out overnight, as they await the release of _Grand Theft Auto V_." When the ad break started, Derek pushed back from the anchor's desk and sipped on some water.

"So, Arizona," Stark said, "Do you think this show is going to be manageable?"

"Definitely." Arizona nodded. She thought that _America in Focus_ wasn't a badly produced show, it just had the wrong vision.

Alex ducked his head inside the control room. "Arizona? Can I talk to you out here for a sec?"

Done with Stark's showboating, Arizona obliged. She stepped outside. "What's the matter?"

"Owen came to thank me after his show," Alex said. "You told him I was the one who found all that stuff on the shutdown?"

Arizona nodded. "Yeah, I wasn't tattling on you or anything. He was just thankful to be able to acquire that information, and I was just making sure that your work gets recognised," she explained. She looked at Alex curiously. "Jesus, Alex, are you really not accustomed to being praised for your good work?"

Alex glanced over her shoulder at Stark. "It's not our culture over at the nine o'clock."

"Well, that's going to change in two weeks," Arizona said. "I'm not-"

"That kind of EP," Alex finished her sentence. "Yeah, you've told me."

Arizona put her hands on her hips. "Do you believe me?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose you haven't given me reason not to."

* * *

**10.15PM**

Callie walked down the empty hallway into the elevator. Most of her staff has left - Mark had said goodbye over half an hour ago, saying that he wanted to get some drinks - while she stayed behind. She didn't know why, exactly. While she occupied herself with doing additional research and reading the Facebook and Twitter feedback on tonight's show, all she could really think about was Arizona in the control room. Arizona running around the bullpen. Arizona working in the office two doors down from her. Arizona in the elevator - wait, hang on.

To Callie's shock, Arizona had just entered the elevator. Her hair was more dishevelled than it was this morning, but she looked happy. In the zone. "Hey," she said softly. "Good show tonight."

"You'll be producing a better one in no time." Callie couldn't help complimenting her.

The blonde looked more hesitant as she asked her next question. "How have you been?"

"Arizona, we're just colleagues now," Callie told her coldly. "Not friends."

Instead of backing off, Arizona kept on talking. "I'm sorry, I just can't help checking on how you are. I mean, I followed your career and all, thanks to the Internet. But you never answered any of my emails over the last ten years."

Callie sighed. "I didn't want to talk to you. I thought you would have gotten the hint."


	2. Shutdown's Eve

**Author's Note: **I'm really glad that the response to this has been positive, because I'm excited about the prospects of this story. The next two chapters to be uploaded will be flashback chapters. I wrote them for two reasons: 1) people need to find out what actually happened between Callie and Arizona, 2) I wrote the first two chapters early into the government shutdown period so I decided to give it time for more real-life news to accumulate before I write about it again. In the spirit of honouring both Aaron Sorkin and Shonda Rhimes, I want it to be as much about journalism as it is about interpersonal relationships.

**Disclaimer: **Current events that are mentioned in this story are all true, but the characters' involvement in them is merely well-researched fiction. If there is a demand for it, I will be writing a series of posts on my writing Tumblr **wip-alterocentrist** to clear things up and provide useful links.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Sunday, 8:00PM**

On the night before her first show as America in Focus's EP, Arizona booked out the largest private room at a Thai place on 2nd Avenue that she found online. She was throwing a dinner for the senior staff of both the eight and nine o'clock shows. Getting the reservation did not come easy as the restaurant was ridiculously popular, but she managed it in the end. It was all for free, too; Richard Webber let her charge it on the company credit card. Ever determined to impress, she even turned up fifteen minutes early.

Eight o'clock came around, and the only two people who have arrived on time were Webber and Alex Karev. The maitre d' approached her. "Ma'am, the room is ready for you. Would you and the two gentlemen like to go there now? We'll direct the rest of your guests there."

"Thank you," Arizona said gratefully. A waiter led them to the room. It suddenly looked way too big.

Webber pulled a seat out for her. "Don't worry. This is New York. They'll turn up."

"Were people unusually punctual in London, Arizona?" Alex asked jokingly.

"Nothing unusual about punctuality," she retorted. Arizona had taken a shine to the young man over the last two weeks. His thoroughness and sharpness with following the shutdown had impressed her. It was also a plus that he was the first one among the staff who stopped treating her like an intruder.

"Here are the others!" Webber announced. Bailey walked in, followed by Owen and Teddy.

"Arizona, hey!" Teddy said cheerfully. "Thanks for taking us out to dinner tonight. Great choice of restaurant."

"Teddy loves her Thai food," Owen chimed in.

"Hi Bailey," Arizona said. "How's your weekend been?"

"I was enjoying my short reprieve before someone else is cracking the whip on my show."

Arizona blinked. She wasn't sure what Bailey intended by that comment. But before she had time to ask, more people entered. The rest of her APs: Lexie, Cristina and Jo, who were joined by eight o'clock's APs, Meredith, who happened to be Lexie's sister, April, Shane, Stephanie, and Leah. "Hey!" she greeted them brightly. "Thanks for coming."

As they took their seats, Mark and Derek arrived together. "Hey, Arizona." Derek looked around the room. "This is a pretty cool place. I see you still know how to throw a party."

"Oh, parties! I want more of that if you're going to be staying on at HANCA, Robbins," Mark told her as he took his seat.

Bailey asked the question that Arizona had wanted to ask: "Sloan, where's Callie?"

"She said she isn't feeling well. She thought it would be better to stay at home tonight instead of leaving me to anchor on my lonesome tomorrow," Mark replied. He looked at Arizona. "She told us to enjoy ourselves, though."

Disappointed, Arizona sank back in her seat. "I'm sure we will."

* * *

** Monday, 12:30PM**

"I don't understand. Why are we meeting this early?" Cristina Yang muttered as she took a seat next to Alex in the conference room. "I haven't even had the chance to sort through the stories from the breakfast bulletin yet."

"Not to mention the midday bulletin hasn't even finished," Lexie Grey added.

Alex was unfazed. "Arizona just wants to talk to us, okay?"

"It's probably going to be some pep talk. I don't have time for this," Cristina grumbled. She stretched her arms out and laid her head on the conference table.

Bailey, who had nothing to say up to that point, said under her breath: "None of us do."

"Come on." Alex glared at her. "You didn't even like Robert. Are you gonna give her a chance?"

"Give who a chance?" Arizona walked in, weirdly, empty handed. EPs usually carried a legal pad and an electronic device on them. When she was greeted with silence, she moaned, "Let me in on some office gossip, will ya?"

"It was nothing," Bailey said, shaking her head. "You wanted to talk to us about something?"

* * *

Callie was walking back to her office after attending a meeting with a source from DC in Webber's private lounge when she heard Arizona's voice through the glass wall of the conference room. She looked at her watch. It was too early for them to be holding a rundown meeting. She couldn't help but stand outside the room to listen anyway, at an angle where she knew she was out of sight from everyone.

"... we're not just in this line of work to tell people what they need to know," Arizona was saying. "We're in this business to show the rest of the world what they're ignoring. We're journalists, right? Our job description seems simple. We're informers, educators, watchdogs. But we're also storytellers. And that's what I love most about this job. It's a _privilege_ to help people tell their stories."

Callie had heard this all before, but she couldn't help smiling. Arizona did always give the best speeches. Apparently, some of her team members didn't think so; Bailey looked unimpressed and Cristina was rolling her eyes.

"Calliope."

The sound of her name made her jump. What she didn't notice was that Arizona had adjourned the meeting already. Instead of standing in front of everyone else in the conference room, Arizona was standing in front of her.

"Are you okay?" Arizona asked. Behind her, the rest of the team shuffled out to return to their desks. "You look lost, which is implausible. This has been your newsroom for years."

"Sorry, I just -" Callie shook her head, chuckling a little bit, "you were- you were saying your 'we are storytellers' speech."

Arizona frowned in confusion. "My 'we are storytellers' speech?"

"You know. The whole, 'we're not just journalists, we're storytellers' thing you have going on," Callie said. Arizona's blue eyes were locked on her, and she could feel herself blushing, and cursed her blood vessels for betraying her. "You've said that speech countless times in DC."

"It's because it's something that I believe in," Arizona said. "And you remember me saying that speech?"

"Are you kidding?" Callie managed to laugh, even if it was the last thing she wants to do around Arizona. "It was like your party trick. I guess some things never change."

Arizona's eyes were searching her face. "Indeed," she said softly.

* * *

Cristina was hanging around Meredith's desk when she saw Callie and Arizona having a conversation. "Hey Mer," she said. "Is something up with those two?" She gestured at them. "People don't look at each other like that unless they've slept with each other at least twice."

"You would know, wouldn't you?"

"I could only imagine. But look, they're like, staring at each other."

Meredith looked up. "Oh, get back to work," she said disapprovingly.

"No! I'm overwhelmed with curiosity and I just _have_ to find out!"

"Cristina." Meredith hoped that the sharpness in her voice would bring her best friend back to earth. "The federal government is going to shut down indefinitely in less than twelve hours. You should go cover that instead of poking your nose in other people's businesses."

"I'm a journalist," Cristina said. "It's my job to poke my nose in other people's businesses."

"Nope." Alex was walking past them, smirking. "We're _storytellers_, remember?"

Meredith gave Cristina a questioning look. "The new EP said it in her pep talk," Cristina explained quickly, before turning her head to call out to Alex. "Screw you, evil spawn!"

"Goddamn." Meredith ran her fingers through her hair in exasperation. "I'm not gonna get any work done today, am I?"

Cristina shook her head. "No, you can go back to work," she said. "I'm going to do a quick Google search. If you wanna help me, you'll know where I am." She walked across the room to her desk, fingers flying across the keyboard even before she got in her seat.

Meredith looked at where Callie and Arizona were standing. Only the EP was left there, watching as the anchor disappeared behind her office door. She hated to admit it, but something was definitely going on.

* * *

**4:00PM**

The EP's office for_ America in Focus_ had four television screens, arranged in rows of two. On all of them - HANCA, MSNBC, CNN and Fox - reports about Congress were playing. Arizona had to smile to herself. Her first show was going to be a lead up on the government shutdown. What a time to re-enter American media.

On the shelves by her office window were an assortment of photographs taken over the years. The closest to her was the most recent family photo, taken when she came home to Virginia for Christmas the year before. Her father and Timothy in similar pastel blue shirts and tan chinos, her mother and her in navy dresses. The second photograph was her team at the BBC in London, standing in front of Buckingham Palace. The third was a candid photograph of her talking to a cameraman while producing a story on the riots in Greece - the story that earned her team a spot on Pulitzer's shortlist. The fourth was taken in Baghdad: she was in a beige hiking shirt with the sleeves rolled up, standing arm in arm with her brother, Owen and Teddy. Owen and Teddy were wearing a similar outfit to hers, while Timothy was in his olive drab and combat pants. The fifth and last photo was of her and a group of young journalists in front of the New Hampshire's governor's mansion. They took the photo while waiting for Gore to emerge from his meeting with the governor. Next to her, an arm discreetly around her waist, was Callie.

They had been embeds on Al Gore's press bus, and when Bush was elected, their careers hung in the balance. Only embeds of the winning candidate were selected for the Press Corps, after all. Callie ended up being chosen as HANCA's junior correspondent in the White House Press Corps, while Arizona - then a stringer for PBS - applied at the BBC's DC bureau as an associate producer. She got the job. The other people in the photo with them weren't so lucky.

Her reverie was broken by Bailey. "Do you want to check over the copy tonight?" the woman asked her. She was holding a stapled bunch of papers out.

Arizona took them gratefully. "Yeah, thanks Bailey," she said. "How are you today?"

"Fine."

"That's good to hear. How did you find the dinner last night?"

"It was good," she replied abruptly, before turning to look at the door. "Can I go? I want to organise logistics with the DC bureau for that Georgetown professor that we're crossing over to tonight."

Arizona was taken aback. It had been two weeks and she was still failing to warm up to Bailey. "Well, all right then," she said. "Talk to me if you have any problems."

"Of course." Bailey turned on her heel and walked to the door.

Owen Hunt entered her office as Bailey left. "You busy?" he asked politely, before stepping inside.

"Just thinking about the shutdown. I do have a meeting with the control room guys in half an hour, though," Arizona said. "I was a college sophomore when the last one happened. Timmy was in the army already, on the base in Texas. He didn't get paid for two and a half weeks."

"We're fighting two wars and we're running the biggest military operation in the world," Owen said reassuringly. "They can't withhold pay for very long."

"Who knows what'll happen, with the Tea Party holding the House to ransom and all." John Boehner's face filled the screen on CNN and she rolled her eyes at it. "Anyway, can I help you with anything?"

Owen shook his head. "No, it's a bit stupid, but I was just checking in on you," he told her. "Bailey looks like she's giving you a hard time."

"Yeah, no, it's not stupid. I totally get that. And Bailey's not giving me a hard time. She's just a little bit standoffish because I'm the new girl, and I get that too."

"That_ is_ Bailey giving you a hard time," Owen said. "She'll be nice to you in a few months."

"How long did it take for you?"

"Like, a year," Owen said. "But she was nicer to Teddy than she was to me."

"Speaking of Teddy…" She pointed at the framed photo of them on her shelf. "Check that out."

"Jesus, is that what I think it is?" Owen picked up the frame to look at it, laughing. "God, what was I thinking with that beard?" He looked at Arizona. "I swear, you were in Baghdad for a few days and our world was turned upside down."

"That's a euphemism for me almost getting you blown up."

"Yeah, pretty much." Owen laughed again. "I was surprised that Tim flipped out at us for getting you in danger, when you were the one who led us there. But then again, in his eyes you could do no wrong."

"We were all young and stupid then, no regrets," Arizona said, grinning at the memory. "How are you and Teddy anyway?"

"What do you mean?"

Arizona laughed. "Oh, don't play coy, Owen! You and her had a thing for each other in Baghdad!"

Owen cringed. "_We did not_! You were with us for four days! Seriously, where did you get that idea from?"

"Dude, I'm not obtuse," Arizona said. "And I can prove that I'm not the only one who noticed. Timothy couldn't stop talking about the '_unresolved sexual tensio_n' between the two of you when he came home on furlough for two weeks."

"Me and Tim or…?"

"You and Teddy, dumbass. So, what happened there?"

A half-laugh, half-sigh escaped Owen's mouth. He had his hands on his hips, preparing for a reply, when the door opened. "Owen! Shane told me you were in here," Teddy exclaimed. "I need you to look at something for me… what's going on?"

Obviously glad at the chance to change the subject, Owen showed Teddy the photograph. "Little Robbins has a record of our brush with death!" he declared.

Teddy stepped closer to him to look it. "Holy crap," she said. "That is a cute photo."

"I like to think we were safari explorers observing animals. And by animals, I mean my brother."

They laughed together. "So, Teddy, what did you want me for?" Owen asked the taller blonde.

"Oh, it's not urgent, just got some news from our guy on the hill in DC that we might want to include in the coverage for tonight," Teddy said. "I can see we're having a wee bit of a catch up over here."

"Well, it has been six years," Owen said. "I was just asking Arizona if she had anyone special in her life that made her come back Stateside."

Arizona was about to call Owen out on his lie, when Teddy jumped in, "Do you?"

"No, it was just a better offer."

"You worked at_ the BBC_."

"Yeah, but I was never going to be an EP there. Webber and Derek lured me in here with the promise of producing the best current affairs news magazine on network television," Arizona told them. "That was a nice dangly bait, and I bit."

"So there isn't a special someone?" Teddy almost looked disappointed. "Wife? Girlfriend?"

"Of course not." Arizona shook her head. "Perpetual bachelorette - that's me. I love my work too much. What about you guys?" Her eyes flitted between the two of them curiously.

Teddy just about jumped half a foot away from Owen. "No. There's no one special, not really."

"Wait until Henry hears that," Owen muttered.

"Who's_ Henry_?" Arizona inched forward in her seat.

"He's a _writer_. For various publications, including_ New York Magazine_ and _Time_," Owen replied. His facial expression suddenly soured. "Teddy also happens to be dating him."

"It's only been four dates. Nothing to get excited about," Teddy said. Owen's face seemed to have gone unnoticed by her.

Arizona waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "I'm sure you've experienced the post-third date event, haven't you, Teddy?"

"You're so much like Tim!" Teddy groaned. "I'm gonna go back to my desk to look at those reports. Owen, you coming?"

He looked at Arizona. "Go," Arizona told him. "I have another rundown meeting soon anyway, so I better do some work."

Teddy said a quick goodbye and left. The door closed after her. Arizona watched as Owen replaced the photo frame on its place on the bookshelf, then walk towards the door. "Owen?"

Owen's hand was already on the door handle. "Yeah?"

"You're not fooling anyone," Arizona said simply, before focusing her attention back to her screens.

* * *

**7:55PM**

Callie and Mark sat in the dressing room doing some final readings before they had to sit in front of the camera. "Why did we decide that a recap on attacks by Islamic insurgents in the past few weeks should go on the top of the A block instead of, you know, the Congress?" Mark asked.

"Executive decision by our executive producer," Callie said. "I think he knows we're coming back for midnight."

"Nah, they'll work something out."

"I'm surprised that you're being optimistic," Callie said. "Because the government is going to shut down. I think it's a strategic move. Put the shutdown midway down the A block and pretend it's breaking news later on."

"I know for a fact that Maddow is returning at midnight for sure, and she's making her audience clear about that fact." Mark rolled his eyes. "People don't fall for that breaking news shit anymore when it comes to our Congress."

"They do. Most of them acted surprised when we told them that Obama was reelected, even if the he had been leading in the polls since forever. You've been in this industry longer than I have and you still overestimate their ability to not fall for the news."

"You don't _fall_ for the news. The news is the truth," Mark said.

"No, the news is the version of the truth that we want them to believe."

"Jesus." Mark let out a low whistle. "You're being a little cynical tonight."

Callie looked at him. "The government is falling apart. I think I'm allowed to be a little cynical."

There was a knock on the door. It was Leah, one of their younger APs. "You guys ready? It's time," she said. She left and Callie and Mark followed her. They assumed their seats behind the anchor's desk, where they were hooked up with their earpieces.

"Can you guys hear me?" Owen's voice came through. "Reply so I can check your levels."

"Yup, I can hear you just fine, Owen," Mark said.

"Same here," Callie said.

"Perfect."

"On in ninety seconds," the technical director said.

Mark started smoothing his hair and straightening his tie.

"Don't strain yourself too hard, Sloan," Callie joked. "We're coming back at midnight."

"Cynic."

"Oh no, she's not being cynical," Owen's voice came through their earpieces. "You are coming back at midnight. You can call your date during the ad break to cancel with her."

Mark frowned. "Surely I could be finished with a date in three hours' time?"

"_Mark_!" Callie exclaimed. "Wait, you don't have a date, do you?"

The technical director, again: "Thirty seconds."

"I don't. But if I did, I'm sure I could get it over in three hours."

"That's enough now," Owen said. "There are women in the control room."

Mark laughed. "Sorry, Teddy!"

"And Leah, too."

"Who's Leah?" Mark asked, genuinely confused.

Callie sighed exasperatedly. "Mark!"

"Ten seconds," the technical director told them. "Can Callie move a little bit forward please, just so the light can catch her the right way?" Callie obliged. "Thanks. Two seconds… roll in."

When the opening theme music faded out, Callie and Mark were already looking at the camera. "Good evening. It's Monday, the thirtieth of September. I'm Callie Torres," she said.

"And I'm Mark Sloan. You're watching _The Eight O'Clock Breakdown_."

* * *

**9:57PM**

Arizona was in the control room, headset on, her eyes observing six different screens at once. She was on a high. Being in control of most of the aspects of producing a news programme was difficult, and she knew she was going to get better, but at that moment, five minutes to the end, she felt like a maestro.

They were coming to the end of the last segment of the show. "Ten seconds back," the technical director reminded Derek.

"Don't forget to remind our viewers about what's going on at midnight," Arizona told him.

"Copy that," Derek said.

"Two seconds back."

"Good stuff. That segment was produced and filmed by Lexie Grey and Jo Wilson in Manhattan earlier this afternoon. That's it for us for tonight, folks. To all you night owls - don't forget to tune in at midnight for HANCA's special coverage on the US government shutdown. I'm Derek Shepherd, thanks for watching _America in Focus_. Good night."

Arizona watched the credits play on the scroll at Derek's chest level. Right after the anchor's name was her name. _Executive Producer, Arizona Robbins_. It sounded great. She could work with that.

* * *

**Tuesday, 12.01AM**

Mark shuffled the papers in front of him before looking up at the camera.

"Roll in," the technical director said. The autocue on the camera began scrolling.

"Good evening. I'm Mark Sloan."

"And I'm Callie Torres. HANCA is bringing you a special midnight report. As of a minute ago, the United States House of Representatives has failed to come to a vote on HJ Res. 59, a resolution which would continue government funding until the fifteenth of December 2013. This resolution struggled through both houses of the Congress because of the House and the Senate repeatedly adding, and then removing, an amendment in the resolution that aimed to defund the Affordable Care Act. Joining us now from Washington DC is Grace Everett, our correspondent from the hill. Grace?"

"Thirty seconds," the technical director said.

Owen watched Callie and Mark sit idly as the DC correspondent spoke into the camera. "Mark, when you come back, can you reiterate that active military personnel, select civilian employees and Defence contractors will be paid during the shutdown. This is because the president has signed a bill put forward by the House that makes this happen," he said through his mouthpiece. "Copy?"

"Gotcha," Mark said calmly.

"Two seconds back."

"Thank you, Grace," Callie said. She turned to her co-anchor. "So, Mark, how exactly is the shutdown going to affect the services provided by the federal government?"

* * *

**12.45AM**

Arizona sidled up next to Teddy, who was standing in the middle of the bullpen, watching Callie and Mark on the screen hanging on the wall. "HANCA did well choosing them as their lead anchors," she told the taller woman.

"Arizona! You're still here? I thought you'd have gone home after your show," Teddy said. "Good work on those vox pops by the way."

One of Arizona's APs, a young upstart named Jo Wilson - had volunteered to go into the streets of Manhattan during rush hour, with a HD handheld camera to ask what people knew about the government shutdown. Arizona told her to take Lexie, and together they came back with some surprisingly good vox pops. "You gotta thank Lexie and Jo for that." When Teddy answered her with a blank look, she said: "Babyfaced, long brown hair?"

"Right, I know Little Grey, but I didn't know the other one. Soft-spoken, right? She's a friend of Shane's but she's one of yours." Teddy nodded. "Are you impressed?"

"Yeah, a little bit," Arizona said. "This is the first time I've worked for network news, I never knew people here were so-"

"Journalistic?" Teddy supplied.

"'Full of initiative' were the words I was going to say."

"You're just surprised that we're not all sellouts," Teddy joked.

"Of course not. Callie and Mark are brilliant anchors, so is Derek," Arizona said. "But then again, Derek did start at the BBC."

"Enough with your elitism. BBC World is a for-profit enterprise too, you know," Teddy said, laughing. "You ran a good show tonight, though."

"Thanks, Teddy." Arizona looked at the time. "I should probably go home. Tell Callie that I think she did a great job tonight."

"Okay." There was a tone to Teddy's voice that Arizona didn't quite understand the meaning of.

It was only when she slid into the cool backseat of the cab home that she realised that she had forgotten to say Mark's name. She had been trying hard to hide any hint of the fact of her past with Callie - including trying to treat her and Mark as a unit - even if the other woman hadn't asked her to, out of respect for her established role on the staff. But even if she didn't slip up with Teddy, someone in the office had to be curious. She knew there was still too much that lingered there.

* * *

**4:30AM**

Cristina fervently knocked on Meredith's apartment door. She was wired after three cups of coffee and was aware that she was going to be paying for at work later that day. She had done plenty of research on Arizona Robbins's background since she got off work for the night. And what she found - well, it just had to be shared.

When Meredith opened the door, Cristina barely noticed her minimal attire of a dress shirt and underwear. Instead, she let herself in, waving the printouts of her research around. And she was also talking at a mile a minute: "I did some digging, and I found out that before Arizona was a studio AP and a field AP in the Middle East and Africa, before she was a senior producer in London, she and Callie were on Al Gore's press bus during the presidential elections in 2000. Of course, I can't ask either of them what really went on, but I found the list of the people on the press bus, and here's an interesting tidbit for you: Addison Montgomery was on it." She flipped the papers to show Meredith a particular photograph. "See, that's a photo of Addison, Callie and Arizona standing next to each other. She works in New York now, too! Maybe I can ask her."

Meredith opened her mouth to say something, but a man's bleary voice got there first. "Mer? Who's here at the_ buttcrack_ of dawn talking about my ex-wife in a very loud voice?" It was Derek Shepherd, just pulling his boxers on.

"Oh my god." Cristina's eyes flew from Derek to Meredith. "You're wearing his shirt. You're sleeping with him. Oh my god. Why didn't I see this before?"

Seeming to have found her voice, Meredith dryly told Cristina: "I think the biggest shock of the night is that you're willing to fight for an appointment with one of the busiest editors-in-chief in the news media to ask her about your crazy conspiracy theory."

Derek was rubbing his eyes. "What crazy conspiracy theory involving Addison?"

"Okay, Derek, all due respect," Cristina turned her whole body around to face away from him, "but you're going to need to put a shirt on if you want to keep talking to me. You're no Sloan."

Derek touched his abdomen self-consciously, but stayed put.

Meredith half-heartedly apologised for her best friend with a wave of her hand. "Cristina thinks that Callie had a sordid love affair with Arizona Robbins."

"Yeah, perhaps one that's similar to what's going on here," Cristina said.

"Oh, shut up." Meredith glared sideways at her.

Derek shook his head. "I wouldn't call it a _sordid_ love affair."

"I think that's exactly what's happening here," Cristina snapped.

"Not _me and Meredith_, dammit," Derek said, rolling his eyes. "Callie and Arizona. They dated for almost two years when they were working in DC after the election. Arizona and I were working together then and from what I heard, it was pretty serious. I don't know anything about their breakup, we weren't close then, and even if we were, it's not my business to tell you."

Cristina was flipping pages again. "You said almost two years?"

"Yes," Derek confirmed warily. "Let it go, Yang. It's none of our business."

Cristina pressed on anyway. "Could it have something to do with Arizona accepting a transfer to BBC's Lahore bureau in 2003?"


	3. Flashback, Part I

**Author's Note: **Here's the first of the flashback chapters! I took a reviewer's advice and decided to release the next part at a later date, in order to create more suspense. Just a content warning: there are some scenes set during 9/11 in this chapter, which I tried to handle with as much sensitivity as possible, but the dates are indicated clearly if you want to skip over those parts. They're not explicit or anything, but they may just be triggering for some readers. Thanks for all your reviews and feedback on this story, it really means a lot.

**Disclaimer: **Current events (and the people in them) mentioned in this story are all true, but the characters' involvement in them is merely well-researched fiction.

Enjoy!

* * *

_Portland, Oregon_  
**May 2000, 7:15AM**

Ellen Robinson, the aide in charge of the press bus for Al Gore's presidential campaign, was having a hectic morning. The journalists had flown in from Portland from their respective bureaus to start the first of Al Gore's cross-country tour in the smaller towns of the battleground states. From the moment they get on the bus, Ellen would be partially responsible for their wellbeing: from their lunches, to their accommodation, to making sure they got up on time in the mornings. It would be like a middle school sleepaway field trip, only worse.

All twenty-three journalists stood in a crowd around her next to the bus. Most of them were young, fresh-faced and eager to start the trip from one end of the country to another. Ellen knew for a fact that a third of them would leave by the time they got to the midwest. "Good morning everyone!" she called out to get their attention. "My name is Ellen, and I'm going to be your go-to person for all your press bus needs. Today we are making the ninety minute drive west to Tillamook for Vice President Gore's speech outside the town hall. Lunch will be roast beef sandwiches, except for those of you who asked for a special menu." She lifted a clipboard. "I know this is going to seem juvenile, but I will need to tick you off on the roll before you can put your stuff in the luggage compartment and climb aboard the bus."

When all the journalists were boarded on the bus, she realised that she had only ticked off twenty-two names. She hopped onto the bus, where everyone was settling in. "I missed ticking someone off on my sheet, guys," she told them. "Is Callie Torres from HANCA here?"

Blank looks were exchanged.

"Come on, no one knows her?" She turned to the driver. "We'll wait another couple of minutes and we'll leave."

"Yes, ma'am."

The couple of minutes passed. Ellen looked at her watch again. "Yeah, looks like she's not gonna show," she said. "We better leave now or we'll run the chance of arriving late."

Frantic footsteps were heard from outside the bus. And then a panicked voice: "Wait! Hang on!"

A blonde with curly blonde hair down to her chin smirked. "I guess that's Callie Torres."

Ellen nodded. "I guess it is." She stepped down from the bus. "Callie?"

The stocky yet tall young woman skidded to a stop in front of the press bus, her long, thick black hair flying across her face. "Yes, that's me. Sorry I'm late," she panted. "This is the Al Gore press bus, right?"

"Yes, it is." Ellen gave her a tight smile. "Why don't you stow your gear in the luggage compartment so we can get a move on?"

"Sure." Callie tugged on the compartment doors, narrowly avoiding getting hit in the face by them, put her bags away, closed the doors and jumped on the bus. She hadn't managed to find a seat when Ellen gave the driver a nod and they were moving out to the parking lot. Callie swore as she found herself tipping over… into someone's lap. "I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed as she propped herself up, coming face to face with the most startlingly blue eyes she had ever seen.

The corners of the blue eyes crinkled into a smile. "That's all right, latecomer," she teased.

Callie wanted to tell her that she had great eyes, but instead, she settled into the row across the aisle from her. She was able to properly focus on her face from this distance. Prominent cheekbones, jaw, cute hair… but that smile. And those eyes! "I- I-," she stammered, "I'm Callie."

"I know. Ellen told us," the blonde replied simply. "I'm Arizona. It's nice to meet you, Callie."

From her seat at the front of the bus, Ellen watched the two interact. Callie was blushing like a high school freshman who got a smile from the captain of the football team - in this case, Arizona. It hadn't even been five minutes on the road and she could already see a flirtation blossoming. Ellen couldn't help but shake her head. Those did not end well on the campaign trail.

* * *

_Las Vegas, Nevada_  
**10:00PM**

The campaign and its entourage were staying at a hotel in Henderson, but some of the journalists decided to hire a van to go to Las Vegas that evening. While a lot of the men went off to the slot machines, Callie and Addison Montgomery, the embed from the New York Times, hung around at the bar, sipping cocktails.

"I thought Clark County was safe for blue," Callie said. "Why are we in Vegas?"

Addison pointed at a man having a little too much fun at the craps table. "That upstart over there is one of Gore's junior campaign advisers," she said. "He probably lobbied for that speech at the Henderson town hall today."

Callie blew a low whistle. "Jesus."

"This is your first campaign, isn't it?" Addison asked.

"Yeah. It's not that obvious since it took you a week to realise."

Addison laughed. "Oh no, I realised from the first time I saw you. When you were late on the bus? Don't worry, it's my first presidential campaign, too. I did a lot of midterms reporting in New York though."

"The midterms?" Callie raised an eyebrow."You were probably there when I was in J school!"

"You went to Columbia J school?"

Callie nodded.

"So did I!" Addison said excitedly. "And _you_ chastised me for being an Ivy League snob."

"We're going to be up in each other's face possibly until September," Callie said, shrugging. "It doesn't hurt to be nice to people." Callie, of course, was referring to the strange rivalry Addison and Arizona had going on since the beginning of the trip. It may just be the fact that they were considered the two most attractive women on the bus by the male journalists. Addison, who probably grew up being told that she was the most beautiful girl in the room, must have felt that she had competition. Arizona, on the other hand, seemed either oblivious or nonchalant over the whole thing.

"I think," Addison paused to take a sip of her drink for effect, "that you have a crush on Arizona Robbins."

Callie's jaw dropped. "I do not!"

"Have you seen yourself around her? That's puppy love if I ever saw it," Addison said.

"Addison."

"It's completely fine, you know," Addison said. "It's a new millennium, god forbid we stop living our lives in a much better way." She nodded at the other side of the large circular bar, where the blonde was seated. "She's over there! Go and talk to her! One of us has to be getting some action."

"You could be getting action if you wanted," Callie said. "But you chose to babysit me."

"Not babysitting." Addison stood up. "I'm going to go play some roulette, maybe meet a nice millionaire that would fund my lifestyle." She glanced at Arizona again. "Talk. To. Her."

"No!" Callie watched Addison leave. "Remember we're going back to Henderson at two o'clock!" she called after her.

"Yeah, yeah." Addison threw her hand up in the air dismissively. "Come on, Torres. What happens in Vegas, right? Have some fun!"

Callie spent the rest of the night watching Arizona drink her beer. Perhaps she did have a crush.

* * *

_Madison, Wisconsin_  
**June 2000, 2:30PM**

Arizona brushed the wayward blonde curls falling across her face. She opened her mouth and knocked back some bottle water that had gone lukewarm inside her backpack. The journalists were sitting on the steps outside the University of Wisconsin-Madison's auditorium, waiting for the candidate to emerge from the town hall-format meeting that he gave.

"I can't believe we're sitting outside in this heat." Addison peered through the double doors into the foyer, which was filled with security and campaign staff. "You realise we've never actually spoken to him directly for weeks now?"

"Why are we even acting surprised?" A Washington Post reporter asked her. Rumour has it was that this particular reporter had such a sour attitude that he was stuck as a campaign journalist forever. "We're living in the era of the spin doctor. You think they'd actually let us talk to him?"

"They could organise a presser for us at the hotel. I'm sure it wouldn't be that much of an effort."

Arizona snorted.

Addison turned to glare at her. "What was that? You got a problem, Berkeley?"

"My name's Arizona."

"All right," Addison said. "But you got a problem?"

"Addison, leave her alone," Callie said. She shot Arizona a sympathetic look.

"If you want to know what my problem is," Arizona said, "it's that it takes a lot of effort to coordinate a presser."

"Did you learn that in California?" Addison asked, not without snark.

Arizona rolled her eyes. "Well, it's a hell of a lot more than what I could learn from my cushy family estate in New Hampshire," she retorted.

Before Addison could think of a response, Callie stepped in. "All right, that's enough now," she said. "Jesus Christ, you two are acting like a pair of sixth grade A-class brats."

Addison turned her attention to something else. Arizona fished in her backpack for the carton of cigarettes she bought a few days ago from Ohio. It was her second carton of the trip. She lit a cigarette and watched Callie, who was now playing a game on her phone. The dark-haired woman appeared as if she had yet to grow into herself, but goddamn, she was beautiful.

Arizona felt despondent as she exhaled a cloud of smoke. It was one thing to be an openly gay young journalist working behind the scenes in the studio. News outlets dug that. Girls dug that. But to be an openly gay young journalist on the road for ten weeks? They had been on the road for a month already, yet Arizona still didn't know how people were going to react to her flirting with women, let alone a fellow journalist on the same press bus.

* * *

_Muscatine, Iowa_  
**6:30PM**

The video version of Arizona on the screen look polished as she spoke into the camera, "We are here in Iowa where Vice President Gore appeared at a public rally this morning, followed by a meet and greet at a local diner. Vice President Gore talked to the citizens of Muscatine about continuing President Clinton's policy of fiscal responsibility in the federal government, while at the same time, investing in the growth and self-sustainability of small communities around the country…"

"You're working. In a bar. During happy hour." Callie sat in the seat next to her.

Arizona, who was hunched over her laptop, looked up. "It's the motel restaurant, which happens to include a bar. Surely I'm allowed to eat my dinner and work at the same time," she said. "I need to get this package to DC by the ten o'clock news."

"Which network are you working for again?" Callie asked.

"Freelance," Arizona corrected. "But I'm a stringer for PBS."

"They couldn't find a poor schmuck in their newsroom to send out on the road for a couple of months?"

Arizona gave her a look. "Is that what happened to you? HANCA, right?"

"Yes, HANCA, and no, I wanted to go," Callie said. "I did most of my training in print but those jobs are harder to come by than they are for television, so I got a job at HANCA as a researcher when I got sick of writing for a daily in Miami. And then this opportunity came along and I took it."

"What does HANCA mean anyway? It's a strange acronym."

"Harper Avery News and Current Affairs."

"That's the news division of Harper Avery Media, right? Prestigious."

"Take one of the first African-American media moguls to make it big, of course he'd want his name plastered on everything he owns," Callie said. "He's got every right to."

"Yeah, I know." Arizona shut her laptop lid. "So, how did you land the gig at HANCA?"

"Sent them my resume and wrote a cover letter saying that I knew the whole rags to riches story. My father lived it - the son of a hotel janitor who ended up owning a transatlantic hotel chain himself - so I grew up in a very privileged position, but that he made sure that I was aware of my roots," Callie explained. "And that HANCA is a company that values the same things that my father values." She smiled proudly. "They ate it all up."

Arizona stared at her in disbelief. "You didn't actually believe in what you were writing?"

"Of course I do, but not as much as how I made it sound like in the letter." Callie laughed. "What about you, Arizona? What's your story?"

"Military brat. My dad was in the Marines. I was born in Japan, actually, just outside a Marine Corps Base. We moved about three times growing up, until Dad got a permanent post in Virginia, and I spent my high school years there," Arizona said. "Contrary to popular perception of military brats, I did love packing up and going to new places, so I decided that journalism would be an appropriate career."

"You are a fascinating person, Arizona Robbins." Callie said this smoothly, as if it was rehearsed.

Arizona closed her laptop lid. "So are you," she said. "Hey, I'm gonna go upstairs and send this over on the dial-up connection. See you tomorrow morning?" She beamed at her.

To her satisfaction, Callie looked appropriately flustered. "Yeah, definitely."

Tucking her laptop under her arm, Arizona walked by the other woman, maybe a little too closely, and leaned down a bit. "You're cute when you stare at me," she whispered, before straightening herself and walking out of the restaurant without looking back.

* * *

_Manchester, New Hampshire  
_**July 2000, 11.00AM**

Standing in the unloading zone of the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, Ellen Robinson was almost sad to see the journalists go. One by one, they disembarked from the press bus for the final time and went to collect all their luggage. Not unlike the first time they met, they gathered in a crowd in front of the press aide. But Ellen wasn't the sentimental type. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go check in!" she told them. And so they scampered.

Callie checked in for the flight to LaGuardia, and she stood around while waiting for Addison to check in. She could feel a smile spreading on her face when a familiar blonde came walking towards her.

"Callie," Arizona said brightly. "You're headed to New York?"

"Yeah, I'm visiting my sister and her family for a couple of days before going back to DC for a debrief at the HANCA bureau there," Callie said. "What about you?"

"Flying to DC, then driving to Quantico to stay with my parents for a while, now that my contract with PBS is over," Arizona said.

"I'm sorry about that."

Arizona waved it off. "They paid me enough to last me a couple of months, maybe more, since my parents insist on paying for everything when I stay at their house," she said. "I'll be fine. I shot some good footage, I might be able to sell the rights to a documentary."

"Seriously?" Callie knew that Arizona had the know-how and the instinct to pull it off, but she knew the legal issue around it as well.

Arizona laughed. "Of course not! I was just kidding," she said. "Well, I'm just coming over here to say goodbye, and maybe I'll see you soon…?" A hint of nerves tinted her voice. She inched closer to Callie.

"Yeah, maybe." Callie was having trouble keeping her cool as well.

"Callie." Arizona leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the lips. A brief, chaste kiss.

But Callie couldn't deny the sparks that flew in front of her eyes once Arizona pulled away.

"I'm sorry," Arizona said. Her eyes were fixed on the floor. "I just felt like I had to do that." She looked up again, this time over Callie's shoulder. "Hey, Addison."

"Hey," Addison said from behind Callie. "Torres, you ready to go?"

"Y-yup," Callie stammered.

Arizona's eyes met hers again. "I guess I better go too. My gate's on the other side of the airport from yours." She smiled, and Callie willed herself not go in for another kiss. "Keep in touch, yeah?"

"Of course."

With a small wave, Arizona turned on her heel and walked away from them. Addison joined Callie in watching the blonde's figure get smaller and smaller until she was out of sight. She hummed vaguely. "I don't know why I never noticed that Berkeley had a thing for you, too," she said to Callie. "I knew there was a reason why we never had a full on bitch fight."

"Her name is Arizona," Callie said, even though she was aware that Addison was being facetious. "And yes, it seems that she has a thing for me."

Addison grinned, clearly happy for her friend. "You got her number? Her email?"

"Shit." Callie swallowed. "I don't."

"Oh well. I wouldn't sweat it. Maybe she has yours," Addison said reassuringly.

"Yeah." Callie was chastising herself in her head anyway. "Maybe she does."

* * *

_Washington DC_  
**September 11, 2001, 1:30PM**

Because the West Wing was evacuated, the White House Press Corps were cooped up in the largest conference room at the Chrysler offices on Pennsylvania Avenue, where the White House's communication staff had decided to set up temporary headquarters. "America is under attack", President Bush had said. It was widely admitted among the press corps that if it wasn't their own country under attack, it would have been a journalistic dream for them.

Callie worked with her senior correspondent, Jack Lee, to write up coherent fact sheets to email through to the DC bureau. Everyone around them worked efficiently but numbly. Constant announcements about the president's course of action after the attacks had everyone on edge to inform their outlets' newsrooms as quickly as they could. The building had adequate Internet and phone connections, but the number of people using it all at once meant that reports coming from the White House reached newsrooms slowly.

Callie watched as Ari Fleischer, the Press Secretary, entered the room. He too appeared to be in a daze. The journalists looked at him expectantly. "Mayor Anthony Williams has declared a state of emergency in DC. The DC National Guard is arriving as we speak," he told them.

"Ari!" A reporter called from the back of the room. "Is there an update on the President's current whereabouts?"

"As DC is still being secured from more potential threats that could come any time today, the President is en route to a bunker in Nebraska until it is deemed safe for him to return to the White House," Fleischer spoke in a steady voice, allowing time for the journalists to write down what he was saying.

"Are there any updates on the Pentagon?" someone else asked.

"Not at the moment," Fleischer replied. "For anything non-president related, I know just about as much as you do, guys. Sorry. I would trust your outlets to be relying on other sources besides the White House on the status of the attack sites. I will come back if I hear anything else though, thank you." He stepped out again.

"Do you really think it's Bin Laden?" Callie asked Jack in a low voice.

"A bunch of terrorists just rammed a planes into buildings full of people, Callie. They're saying it's the biggest number of casualties on an attack on American soil ever. I know you think he's a bit of a dweeb, but do you think Bush would be pointing random fingers unless he had solid evidence for a motive?" He shrugged. "Times like these, we have to believe what the president says, and carry his message through to our audiences, okay? We'll doubt him if he gives us a reason to - that's our job, after all - but right now, we've got to believe him, because the American people need to believe him."

* * *

** 7:25PM**

On the steps of the Capitol building, the members of Congress sang "God Bless America" together in front of the whole nation. The Press Corps had emerged from their makeshift office in Pennsylvania Avenue, and the television reporters had their camera gear out, getting some quality footage.

Callie was lining up the shot for Jack, who was on his haunches, double checking over his copy before facing the camera, when she heard someone call out: "Oh my god, Callie, is that you?" She turned around to see Arizona Robbins, her hair longer and dishevelled, carrying a case of camera equipment.

"Arizona," she said. "How are you?"

"I'm good. I mean, it's been a crazy day, but I'm functioning. My EP sent me out with a reporter because we're short on camera operators. Some of them are stuck at airports." The blonde's face was pale and ashen. "But god, you work at the White House! You must be wigged out."

"I'm doing the same as you. Focusing on this," Callie nodded at the camera she was setting up, "is keeping me going for now."

"Jesus Christ. I can't believe this is happening."

"I don't think anyone can, really."

"Callie," Jack addressed her. "We should get started."

"I gotta go," Callie told Arizona.

"Yeah, I've got to set this camera up anyway. You take care," Arizona said, giving Callie a sad smile. She was about to start walking away when she turned to face the dark-haired woman once more. "I know it's not the time, but… I'm really sorry for not getting in touch after New Hampshire. I forgot to get your number or your email, and I felt like such a doofus that I couldn't work up the courage to ask someone else for it." When Callie just stared at her, she quickly added, "I just thought you should know," before walking off to find a spot to set up.

Disregarding the strange look that Jack was giving her, Callie fished in her satchel for a business card and a pen. She scrawled her personal number on the back. "Arizona! Wait!" She ran to follow the blonde, making sure that she didn't knock over anyone else's camera equipment on the way. She caught up, panting slightly, and handed Arizona the business card.

Arizona looked at it, then looked up at her. "What's this?"

"Call me when you're ready, okay?" Callie said calmly. With that, she made her way back to her camera.

* * *

**October 10, 2001, 1:30AM**

It probably wasn't the right thing to do at the time, but Arizona wasn't thinking about that. She took a poured herself another glass of wine - her fourth or fifth for the night, she couldn't remember - before feverishly searching up a number on her phone. Against her rational judgement, she jabbed the call button and held the phone to her ear.

Someone picked up after three rings. "Hello?" The voice on the other end of the line was bleary.

Arizona sat up suddenly. She didn't expect anyone to answer the phone. "Callie, it's Arizona. Robbins."

"Arizona? What's going on?"

"I don't even know wh-why I'm calling." A short burst of laughter escaped from her mouth. "You just told me to call when I'm ready, and I don't think I am, but I-I just want to - need to -_ talk_. To someone. Anyone. You."

"Arizona, are you drunk?"

"Tipsy," Arizona corrected. "And for good reason, I swear. I need to talk to you."

Callie's voice grew more concerned. "Give me your address. I'll get a cab right over," she said.

"No, C-Calliope," the blonde slurred in protest. "It's late. We both have work, and I'm guessing your hours are earlier than mine. Not ad-advisable. I shouldn't have called, it was st-stupid. I'll call when I'm sober to apologise properly."

"Arizona. Your address," Callie said firmly.

"Oooh! Your voice goes all sexy when you're bossy like that." Arizona giggled, and relayed her address to the woman on the other end of the line. "Be safe, Calliope!"

"How do you know my full first name?" Callie demanded.

"I think it was on your press corps ID pinned to your hip when we ran into each other near the Capitol?" Arizona replied. She broke out into another fit of giggles. "Sorry I was looking there!"

Callie sighed. "I'll be there ASAP." She hung up.

* * *

It took Callie twenty-five minutes to arrive at Arizona's apartment. The blonde buzzed her in and opened the door. "Hi, you came! You're not a hallucination, right?" she asked brightly, stepping aside to let Callie in. She obviously had squeezed in a few more drinks while Callie was en route.

"I'm going to get you a glass of water. Lead me to your kitchen," Callie said. Arizona pointed in a vague direction, so Callie searched for the glasses herself and filled one up for Arizona. She sat next to the blonde on the lounge. "No more chardonnay for tonight." She moved the bottle of white wine - the second one - out of reach. "Drink this." She pushed the glass of water at Arizona.

"I was just getting started on my merlot," she joked weakly, but started drinking the water anyway. Her hands were shaking so some water dribbled on her chin. "Why did you come?"

"You worried me over the phone," Callie said patiently. "What's up? Why are you drinking this much on a work night?"

Arizona drank more water, then handed the glass back to Callie, implying that she wanted another one. Callie obliged and returned with another full glass, which Arizona drank in one long gulp. She placed the glass on the coffee table in front of them. "The craziest thing about being a journalist," she started, noticeably a little more sober, "is that people - including yourself, sometimes - believe that you're just an observer and relayer of events."

"I'm not following," Callie said. "I mean, I totally get what you're saying, I'm just not following your line of thought."

"Bush declared the War on Terror on Sunday, yes?"

"Yeah…"

"My brother's going to Afghanistan tomorrow. He's been a soldier since the nineties, he's been deployed to a war zone before," Arizona told her. "It shouldn't be a big deal, right? My father fought in Vietnam just after he and my mother got engaged. He fought in the Gulf, too. Mom could remember being so afraid that he wasn't going to come home. Tim - my brother - was in Kosovo, and I remembered feeling the same way, but he wasn't there for very long."

"Well, maybe he won't be there for very long either." Callie rubbed Arizona's shoulder lightly.

"He called me yesterday. He's on a plane to Germany right now where he'll stay for a few hours before flying into Kabul," Arizona told her. "He said that he was told that they are going to be fighting the Taliban, but he admitted to me that he doesn't really know what he's fighting for, except that he's serving our country and that's what we all need to remember."

Callie let Arizona's sentence hang in the air around them. After a moment of hesitation, she draped her arm around the blonde's shoulder and pulled her in. "This is what we'll do," Callie said. "You're going to brush your teeth and go to bed. I'll sleep on your couch. I'm going to call us both in sick for work, because I'm going to drive us to Quantico to visit your parents. They still live there, right?"

Arizona nodded. Her chin had brushed against the side of Callie's breast, and Callie tried hard not to react to the sensation.

"I don't know much about war, or having loved ones in the armed forces, but what I do know is that you guys need to be a family right now," Callie said. "Does that sound okay?"

Arizona nodded again.

"Okay, go get ready for bed."

The blonde stood up and made her way to the bathroom. After she brushed her teeth, she came out to stand by where Callie was making herself comfortable on the couch. "I have a king-sized bed," she said.

Callie opened her eyes and stopped squirming. "Sorry?"

"You can come join me. I have a king-sized bed," Arizona repeated. "We don't need to touch."

Telling herself that it was just for tonight, Callie agreed.

* * *

**October 12, 2001, 5:00PM**

Arizona and Callie were about fifteen minutes away from DC, riding in the sedan that Callie rented to go to Quantico. They didn't mean to stay there two nights - and consequently, miss three days of work - but Callie had called Arizona's parents before they drove there and both of them apparently insisted that the two women pack a couple of night's worth of clothes. Arizona suspected that Callie had been raised to be courteous to those offering their hospitality, so she had no choice but to accept.

Spending time with her mom and dad in their colonial-style home - where she spent her high school years and numerous college weekends in - had been good for her, and she thought it was good for them, too. Together, they kept up with the news about what was happening in Afghanistan, made meals together and most importantly, talked and reassured each other about Timothy's safety.

Arizona noted that Callie kept her distance from the family moments, but dug her hands right in when it came to chipping in with cooking and household chores. She was surprised how well Callie got on with her parents. She had even woken up from a brief nap to find her father sharing conversation with the dark-haired woman on the porch over some coffee. She knew Callie didn't know this about Colonel Daniel Robbins of the United States Marine Corps, but he didn't invite just anybody to have his afternoon coffee with him.

"You're very quiet," Callie murmured. Her eyes flitted to Arizona quickly before focusing back on the road.

Arizona gave her a reassuring smile. "I was just doing some thinking."

"About what?"

"About how my parents were impressed with you."

"You think?" Callie asked happily. "I wanted them to be."

"Really?" Arizona smirked. "Now, why could that be?"

"Nothing," Callie said quickly. "I mean, it's just how I was raised. We gave them such little notice before driving there and they insisted that we stay two nights. You're their daughter, so that's a given, but they just met me, so yeah, that was really nice. I had to return the favour somehow."

"Your spinach and feta cheese risotto with that grilled chicken certainly ranked you above their daughter whose speciality is burgers," Arizona said.

"Hey, I can tell that they're pretty proud of you too. Your dad was gushing about you when we had coffee together. It was all Arizona this, Arizona that."

Arizona took secret pleasure that her father talked to Callie about her. "I sure hope he didn't tell any embarrassing stories."

Callie waved her off. "Oh, just some pretty naughty things you and Timothy got up to when you were younger," she said vaguely. "But that's stuff between me and him."

"Ah, you're sharing secrets with my dad now, aren't you?" Arizona laughed. She was suddenly enjoying the idea of her father and Callie exchanging stories. "It seems like you had a great time in Quantico. I'm glad you did. I mean, it was_ your_ idea after all."

"I thought it would cheer you up," Callie said, shrugging.

"Thank you," Arizona said sincerely.

"It's what friends do," Callie said. She swallowed. "We are friends, right? Even if we kinda just reappeared in each other's lives randomly?"

Arizona nodded. "Of course we're friends. You can't come out of a cross-country tour for ten weeks and not be." Admittedly, she felt a little stung. But perhaps she shouldn't be expecting much from Callie anyway. They had just started hanging out, after all. If Tim was a phone call away, he'd tell Arizona to take her time.

* * *

**December 7, 2001, 6.45PM**

Callie was nervous because her cab was running late. But she was also nervous because she hadn't been on a date in ages. Sure, she had gone out with a couple of people here and there since being based permanently in DC, but with her work schedule, it was hard to sustain any relationship, no matter how casual it was. So she had every right to be nervous every time she had a date, right?

She picked up the phone to dial her companion for the evening. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Sorry, I called for a taxi fifteen minutes ago but the company called saying that it would arrive another ten minutes later than expected," she explained. "I guess I'm just calling to say not to freak out."

"I'm not freaking out. _You're_ the one who's freaking out. Chill, it's going to be okay." The person on the other end laughed.

This assuaged the knots of anxiety in Callie's stomach. "Okay. I'll see you soon. Bye."

* * *

Arizona logged into her email and was pleasantly surprised to find a message from Timothy. She clicked on it and grew immediately more cheerful. Her eyes moved across the screen, reading the email in her brother's droll, lively voice.

_Hey dork,_

_I'm sorry it took so long to send you an email. We're stopping by a bigger camp in Kabul to get more supplies, and they've got internet here. It's pretty crap but I think this will send okay. I did get your letters a couple of weeks ago, and have written back, but you know how the army postal service is._

_Anyway, I wrote about this in my letter, but I thought I'd bring it up here now. Dad wrote to me saying that you came to Quantico for a visit, with a girl! Well, "pleasant young woman" were the words he used. Her name is Calliope or something hot like that. Arizona - what kind of women are you hanging out with? Can you introduce me to some of them? (Only the ones that go out with guys like me, though!)_

_Jokes aside, Dad and Mom seem to really like this Calliope girl. I'm not saying date her to make them happy, but they said she made you laugh, so maybe you should date her to make you happy, too. Get it done. You deserve it, baby sis._

_I have funnier jokes about this whole matter in my letter to you, which will hopefully arrive before New Year's Eve. I hope you're kissing someone then, because I sure won't be._

_Your big brother,_

_Timmy_

Arizona was smiling at her screen for a while when there was knocking on the door. She shut her laptop down and went to meet whoever was on the other side of the door. As she pulled it open, she could feel her smile getting wider. She hadn't known that it could. "Hello, Calliope."

Callie stood in front of her, a black peacoat over her dress, bag slung over one shoulder. "Arizona." She was grinning. "You look great tonight."

"So do you." She felt shy in her simple blue dress. "Let me just get my coat." A minute later, with her coat on and purse in hand, she and Callie slid inside the backseat of a cab. The destination was one of the most expensive restaurants in DC. As soon as she got the chance, she would write Timothy a letter about how she got it done.


	4. Fire Starters

**Author's Note: **Hey everyone, sorry for the late update. I'm on exam leave at the moment, and I've only completed 1/4 of my exams, so writing has obviously ground to a halt. I'm behind two chapters and won't be updating until I finish those - which is probably going to be sometime after my exams are done and dusted. I hope that the next couple of weeks will give me some exciting news material to chuck our journalists in! Your feedback is still much appreciated and I'm really enjoying researching and writing this story for all of you :)

**Disclaimer:** Current events (and the people in them) mentioned in this story are all true, but the characters' involvement in them is merely well-researched fiction.

* * *

**Thursday, 9:30AM**

Scoop was the name of the café around the corner from the HANCA building, and some of the APs sat and talked over coffee there most mornings before going to work. Cristina, Meredith and Lexie were seated in a corner booth. Lexie's eyes and thumb were working in sync as she caught up on her Twitter feed, while Meredith and Cristina pored over a shared copy of _The New York Times_ that they procured from the magazine rack.

"I did some more research on Arizona Robbins," Cristina said out of the corner of her mouth.

Memories of Tuesday coming back to her, Meredith shot her a glare. "I thought we've decided that you're going to drop that," she said.

Lexie looked up from her tablet. "Drop what?"

"Hasn't our new EP seemed a little bit of an enigma to you?" Cristina asked the younger Grey, aware that she was more attracted to gossip than her sister. "Well, I looked her up and got some juicy information."

"Yeah?"

"Oh,_ Lexie_," Meredith groaned. Cristina was such an enabler.

"Ten years ago, Arizona was a producer at the BBC in DC, and she was in a relationship with someone she met on Al Gore's press bus during the 2000 campaign." Cristina paused for effect. "Callie, who happened to be HANCA's senior White House Correspondent at the time."

"Callie?" Lexie's eyes widened. "As in, our Callie Torres? Was it serious?"

Meredith buried her hands in her face.

"Yup." Cristina was nodding. "I don't have any specifics, but they were living together at the beginning of 2003, but suddenly neither of them were at that address anymore by mid-November."

"You looked up their_ address_?" Meredith asked incredulously.

"Why, what happened?" Lexie asked at the same time.

"Arizona moved to Pakistan to work at the Lahore bureau," Cristina said. "And I don't think she and Callie saw each other again until a little over two weeks ago."

"Shit," Lexie said. "That's pretty tough."

Alex took a seat next to Meredith, nursing a cup of coffee. "Who are we talking about?"

"Arizona," Lexie replied.

"Oh." Alex's eyes lit up. Everyone knew he harboured admiration for Arizona, who in turn, had chosen him as a favourite. "Did you look her up, Yang? I've always wanted to know her background, I just felt awkward asking."

Cristina rolled her eyes. "If you must know, she was born in Japan, went to high school in Quantico, summa cum laude at American University, then UC Berkeley for J school. She produced a series of stories on Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto's assassination in 2007-"

"Which she won the Peabody for," Alex said, a hint of reverence in his voice. When Cristina gave him a look, he shrugged. "That much I know."

"Yup, and she was shortlisted for the Pulitzer last year for covering anti-austerity riots in Greece."

Meredith slapped her hand on the table. "See? Now, why didn't we talk about this before?"

Alex looked at her. "Huh? What were you guys talking about before I got here?"

"About how Arizona and Callie were in a relationship and they had a messy breakup," Cristina said bluntly.

"Callie Torres? How messy?" Alex asked.

"Well, Arizona ended up moving to Pakistan in the middle of two wars, so…"

"Is that an assumption or did you find confirmation for that?" The protective tone in Alex's voice didn't escape the others' notice.

"Assumption," Meredith said.

"Very_ strong_ one," Cristina said. "Stop judging me, Mer, I'm very close to finding out the truth."

"Honestly, Cristina," Alex frowned, "I don't think it's any of our business anyway. Why can't we just leave what happened with them to them? It was ten years ago after all. And most people won't care as long as they don't start getting into bitter shouting matches in the newsroom."

Cristina huffed. "You just like her because she gives you the time of day."

"I like her because she recognises that I could be good at this," Alex told her. "Besides, she'd give you the time of day too if you weren't so cold and surly around her."

Lexie laughed. "And this is coming from Mr Grumpy."

Alex raised his hands in defeat. "I'm just saying, Arizona's a great EP. You just have to fight perky with perky," he said. The others looked at him, bemused. "What? At least I'm talking about fixing things in the present to improve the future, instead of speculating on the past."

Meredith chuckled into her coffee, and avoided Alex's eyes as she drank it.

Cristina laughed more audibly, shaking her head. "Oh, Alex. You've drunk the Arizona Robbins Kool-Aid."

"Just make sure this doesn't spread around the office," he snapped. "I don't think anyone has the time for more office gossip. God knows, we already do so much of it." He focused on drinking his coffee, and so, missed Cristina mouthing, "The Kool-Aid!" to Meredith and Lexie over his head.

* * *

**5:30PM**

There was even more whispering than usual among the APs in the conference room when Owen and Teddy entered for the third rundown meeting. As he took his place at the head of the table, Owen decided to ignore it. "Good morning," he said. "Teddy and I have decided - against our better judgement - to lead with the shooting in Washington DC today instead of going over the answers to the questions in the White House daily briefing."

"Why is it against our better judgement?" Stephanie Edwards asked.

"Because we told ourselves not to start the show with horrible stuff like this, but we feel like we could take a different angle on it. Besides, covering the daily briefing is what the DC bureau is for, no offence to anyone who transferred from there." Owen cleared his throat awkwardly. "We don't know what this angle is yet. Does anyone have any suggestions?"

"I think I got one." April Kepner's fingers nimbly flew over her laptop. "The Capitol Police who subdued the woman - who they determined as a credible threat to DC - aren't being paid wages because of the shutdown."

Teddy frowned in consideration. "I thought the Capitol Police are deemed as 'essential' services?" she asked.

"Essential enough to go have to report to work, but no pay at all during the shutdown."

There were several low whistles in the room. "Shit, that's harsh," Shane muttered.

"Tell me about it," Owen agreed. "They can pay the military overseas but can't pay the people protecting the seat of government. That's messed up."

Teddy appeared distracted as she scanned the room. "Where's Meredith? Isn't she in charge of something?"

"She was on the phone," Stephanie gestured in a vague direction.

"Well, she needs to be here."

Meredith ran inside the conference room. "Sorry guys," she panted. "I have news!"

"We're in that business," Owen deadpanned. "What have you got?"

Grinning, Meredith announced: "I was able to book Michele Bachmann."

Owen's jaw went slack. The whispering even stopped. "_What_?"

"Tea Party crackpot Michele Bachmann?" Leah asked.

April gave her a look. "Oh, come on, Murphy, don't judge."

"You booked Michele Bachmann for real?"

"Five minutes into the A block," Meredith said proudly. "I fought for it. She's highly in demand with all the big news networks."

"I'm sure HANCA will feel privileged for the five minutes of primetime gold she'll give us tonight," Teddy said in an undertone.

Mark poked his head in. "Hey guys, what's going on here?"

"Michele Bachmann has agreed for an interview in the A block tonight," Owen told him.

Mark burst into a full, deep laugh. "_Awesome_," he said. "Lock it in. I'll rip her apart."

"Rip who apart?" Callie walked up next to Mark, a curious expression on her face. Her eyes flitted from Mark to Owen. "Who are we ripping apart tonight?"

"Michele Bachmann. In the A block," Mark said. "And_ I'm_ ripping her apart, not you."

Callie turned to Owen. "Please tell me you're giving Michele Bachmann to me, not to him."

"You'll both be interviewing Michele Bachmann," Owen decided. The two anchors groaned. Everyone else went back to whispering. "In fact, after this, you'll be working with Meredith to get a plan of attack going." He pointed his pen at April. "You're going to produce a package on the DC shooting, three minutes maximum at the top of the A block, show me by seven-thirty at the latest. Everyone else, do what Teddy's assigned you and _stop whispering_!"

A silence fell over the room. Stephanie tentatively spoke up: "Are we dismissed?"

Owen sighed. "Yes."

The APs rushed out of the conference room, and the whispering started again as soon as they were back in the bullpen. Callie followed them with their eyes, then looked at Owen. "What is up with them? It's like they're back in high school."

"Karev has probably given one of them the clap," Mark said, before walking off to join Meredith at her desk.

* * *

**8.09PM**

Owen waited from the nod from Meredith before speaking into his mouthpiece. "Mark, Callie, we're having technical issues over at the DC bureau in setting up Bachmann's broadcast," he said slowly. "You're going to need to go to break so they can have time to sort it out. Copy?"

"Yup," Mark said.

"Five seconds back."

"Thanks, Jenny," Callie said when the correspondent's segment finished. "After the break, we're going to have a chat with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of the Republican Party. This is _The Eight O'Clock Breakdown_, stay tuned."

"Four minutes and thirty seconds back."

Mark sipped some water before regarding Callie with an inquisitive gaze. "So, I heard something interesting about you and Arizona Robbins today," he said in a low voice.

Callie, who was drinking water herself, tried hard not to choke on it. "What?" she spluttered. "What about me and Arizona?"

"Chill, Torres," he said, chuckling. "Some of the APs are just spreading rumours that you two used to be a thing." He watched the colour drain from Callie's face. "Unless it's more than just a rumour…"

"Which AP?"

"I dunno." Mark shrugged. "The younger ones. Shane, Stephanie and…" he squinted. "Leah?"

"Did you ask them how they came to that conclusion?"

Mark shook his head. "I was eavesdropping on them when April asked me for advice on her story as I was passing through the bullpen," he explained. "Well, is it true or not? Were you and Arizona a thing?"

To Callie's relief, Owen - who was probably listening to their conversation the entire time - cut in through their earpieces. "Two minutes, guys, and you've carefully prepared this interview so can we not get distracted, please?"

"Right, gotcha." Smirking, Mark didn't take his eyes off Callie.

* * *

**8.58PM**

Teddy was apologetic as she approached Arizona, who was standing by Bailey's desk. "Hey, we're really sorry for running overtime. That Bachmann interview was exhausting," she said. "You ever feel like you could control every aspect of an interview, but then you realise you can really only control your anchors? The other side can be as wacko as they want."

Arizona smiled brightly. Bailey, however, did not. "That's perfectly fine!" the shorter blonde said cheerfully. "We can't guarantee not going overtime ourselves. We've got a great interview lined up for tonight."

"Yeah?"

Bailey's expression transformed from frustrated to excited. "House Minority Leader _Nancy Pelosi_. I actually got to brief her today. I thought I might faint."

"Ah, you're a Pelosi fan, aren't you?" Arizona clapped her senior producer on the back, before turning her attention to Teddy.

"Well, at least she probably won't launch into those crazy tirades that Bachmann went into several times tonight, without Mark or Callie being able to rein her in," Bailey said critically.

Teddy gave her a tight, but patient smile. "I'll make sure to get your feedback to Owen."

Bailey looked at Arizona. "I'm gonna go set up in the control room. You coming?"

"Yeah, I'll be right with you." Arizona watched her leave, before turning to Teddy. "What's up with Bailey?"

"Didn't you know? Her father has a PhD in molecular chemistry, he works at the National Science Foundation," Teddy said. "They had to furlough their scientists, and he's one of them. She's not the biggest fan of any politician today. Except maybe Nancy Pelosi."

Arizona's eyes widened. "That could have been an awesome story. It still can be."

"Arizona, don't be such a hound." Teddy dismissed her with a wave. "Miranda Bailey is a great journalist, but her whole schtick is not to mix personal with the professional. Which is why she probably hasn't told you about her dad."

"How come _you_ know this?" Teddy and Bailey didn't seem particularly chummy to Arizona.

Teddy smiled proudly. "I got her drunk one time."

"That would have been a sight to see!" Arizona laughed. "I better go, seriously," she said. With a wave, she jogged to the control room, her tablet under her arm. She bumped into someone while coming down the corridor.

"Watch it!" Callie said. But when she realised it was Arizona, her hand shot out to grasp her around the arm. "Hang on, I wanna ask you something."

Arizona looked straight into Callie's eyes. Even in the dim light of the hallway, she could see how brown they were. Or maybe her memory was just filling in the gaps for her. "What?" she managed to ask, after a few seconds of staring.

Whatever positive feeling Arizona thought was there between them completely evaporated when Callie asked: "Did you tell your staff that you and I used to be involved?"

* * *

**9:20PM**

In the control room, Arizona watched the screens carefully, trying her best to concentrate on what the interview, and not what Callie asked her. She had insisted that she had no idea what was going on, but it didn't look like the other woman believed her. Before she could persuade her, Bailey had stormed towards her to yank her inside the control room.

"Come on, Derek," she said in a singsongy, yet stern voice. She didn't feel like messing around today. "Tell her to get off the party message!"

"Nancy, Nancy…" Derek cut in through the politician's rant politely. "You're not saying anything that you haven't said already in the last four days."

"Because that's all there needs to be said," Pelosi insisted. "A small faction is holding the Republic Party hostage, and they're taking the government hostage. That's all there is to it."

"We both know that's not it."

"That's exactly it."

"So you're not going to respond to my question about the Democratic Party's failure to compromise."

"There is no failure to compromise because there was no proper negotiation process, Derek."

"Go for the money shot," Arizona said.

"Will you answer this question,then, Nancy?" Derek paused, as if reading something from his notes. "What does the Democratic Party plan to do to help those government workers who have been furloughed?"

Pelosi's face slackened. "I have to admit that we can't do much," she said. "But we will talk to the banks and we will place our good faith in business owners to be understanding towards furloughed government employees."

Arizona snorted. "Aren't the Dems going on about how business owners are reckless and evil?" When Derek shot a questioning glance at the camera, she added, "Don't ask her that, that's a stupid question. Just follow through and wrap it up."

"Nancy, what is another term for government employees?"

"Excuse me?"

"What is another term for government employees?"

"Public servants, of course," Pelosi said easily.

"Public servants, as in people who are serving the public. The public being the American people. The public being this country."

Pelosi's expression turned wary. "Yes."

Derek leaned forward. "Tell me something, Nancy. Democrat or Republican, you - and the other members of Congress - are still being paid your salary during the shutdown, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am."

"Would you consider yourself a public servant?"

"Yes."

Because her gut was telling her to, Arizona recited a figure in Derek's ear. She had gotten one of the APs to Google it for her earlier that day, in case it needed to come up.

"Well then," Derek leaned back again, "you're still earning your one hundred and ninety-three thousand, four hundred dollars, _plus benefits_, yet your career begins and ends at the discretion of the American people." He paused. "So, Nancy, can you please tell me what is it that makes you different - rather, what is it that makes you_ better_ - than someone who is hired to serve this country - for a much lower salary, may I add - and someone who can get axed from their job for not showing accountability on network television? Because I'm dying to know, and I'm sure the Capitol cleaners are, as well."

After Nancy Pelosi muttered out a vaguely coherent response, Arizona told Derek, "Wrap it up and go to break." Derek did so.

"Five minutes back," the technical director said.

"Great, that is so going to be on YouTube by the end of tonight!" Arizona exclaimed. "Nancy Pelosi fumbles in front of McDreamy. Well, at least our ratings might go up a little bit."

Derek rolled his eyes. "You said go for the money shot."

"The money shot was you asking her what the Dems plan to do about helping the furloughed employees out!"

"I thought we could go one further than that."

"Well, I didn't know that you'd go as far as to _humiliate_ her."

"Humiliate? I think you're overreacting, Arizona," Derek said. "Besides, it's you who told me that we're not in the business of making any politician look good, we're in the business of holding them accountable."

"When did I tell you that?" Arizona felt confused.

"At the rundown meeting when Bailey said we booked Pelosi!"

In the control room, Arizona turned around to look at Bailey. The shorter woman nodded. "You did say that," she confirmed.

Derek gave Arizona an incredulous look through the camera. "God, what's gotten into you?"

* * *

**10.05PM**

Derek watched as Arizona stepped into the studio, supposedly after debriefing the control room over tonight's show. "Okay, that was a really good interview. I meant what I said before the show. We're not the 'liberal media' or the 'conservative media'. We're HANCA, and this is what we're meant to be doing," the blonde admitted to him. "But next time? You should listen to your EP."

"Got that," Derek said, smiling despite himself.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?"

"Have you got a Republican lined up for me?"

"Better," Arizona said. "A representative from the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota has agreed to get himself to our affiliate office and we're doing a live interview. I've also got Cristina and Lexie coordinating with our west coast office for a piece on the Yurok Indian Reservation for the day after. The shutdown is hitting them hard."

"Isn't it hitting everyone hard?"

The EP looked thoughtful. "When it's coming from the perspective of people who have been repeatedly betrayed by the leaders of this country, even if they're the ones who got here first, those cuts are particularly deep," she said. "Besides, do you think MSNBC or Fox are gonna do that story? Pelosi is your last politician interview for the rest of the shutdown."

Derek scowled. "When did you make that decision?"

"Just now," Arizona said. She must have read the disbelieving look on Derek's face. "Hey, it's _America in Focus_. Callie and Mark can rip politicians apart just like Maddow does, but we'll do something different."

"Government policy with a human focus," Derek recalled the words Arizona said to him when she first arrived.

"Exactly," Arizona said. "Anyway, I'm gonna let you go so I can debrief the staff. Good show tonight." She turned on her heel and left the studio.

Derek called after her: "We'll have a better one tomorrow!"

* * *

**10.30PM**

Jacket on top of his shirt and satchel slung over one shoulder, Alex entered the first elevator that opened and leaned back against the cool wall. In his four years of working for HANCA, he had never felt so exhausted with his job. At the same time, he had never felt so satisfied either. Finally, he was being challenged, and the fact that he was told that he was doing good work was something that made him enjoy being a journalist even more.

"Wait up." An arm shot through the closing elevator doors, making them open again. Arizona Robbins entered the elevator with a smile. Her hair was tousled from her constantly running her fingers through it throughout the day, a habit that Alex noticed from the beginning of her tenure. Arizona tied her hair up in the control room, though, and from the few times that Alex had been working in there during a show, he knew that Arizona was even better when she was in control of something.

"I liked that Pelosi interview," Alex told her. "I wish I had been in the control room."

Arizona looked at him. "I didn't produce that last part," she said. "Derek kinda went rogue."

"You let him though, and it didn't turn out bad in the end," Alex said. "He'd probably end up on a few blogs tomorrow, be on talkback radio, but it'll die down. He didn't do anything that memorable, if we're being honest."

"Yeah, he really didn't, did he?" Arizona laughed. "Hey, since we're being honest, can I ask you a question? It's about some office gossip going around."

Alex froze. "Shoot."

She took a deep breath. "Did you hear any rumours in the bullpen today about me and Callie?"

For a second, Alex didn't know whether he should tell Arizona the truth. He didn't know if she was going to get angry at him or Cristina - which he didn't want - but he really didn't want to get on her bad side. Choosing his words carefully, he finally told her, "I was only told that it wasn't a rumour. That's about it."

"Okay, I promise you now that whoever told you that isn't going to get in trouble, as long as you tell me first," Arizona told him.

"Why should I tell you first?"

"Have you seen Callie angry?"

Alex had. He and the other staff were shaken for days. He nodded.

"If you tell me first, I'm not going to get anyone in trouble, and I'm going to deal with Callie myself," Arizona said. "She's upset about it right now but I think I can defuse her."

From what the blonde just said said, Alex discerned that Cristina was right: his EP and the eight o'clock anchor did actually have a past. "What if whoever I heard it from was a friend of mine?" he asked vaguely. "How am I supposed to believe you wouldn't throw them in front of Callie's wrath?" He knew that Cristina could take Callie on, but getting in Callie's bad books for an indefnite period was something even someone as stubborn as her couldn't handle.

"Alex, have some faith in me. Not that kind of EP, remember?"

"Why do you keep saying that?"

"Because I'm really not," Arizona said. "I plan on sticking around at HANCA for a while, so I'll be your EP unless you get sick of me and ask for a transfer. We're going to need to trust each other."

"Don't tell anyone that I told you this," Alex shifted from one foot to another, averting eye contact with Arizona, "but I love my work right now, and I'd never ask for a transfer as long as you're my EP."

A smile spread on the blonde's face. "So tell me who told you about me and Callie, then."

* * *

**Friday, 10.45AM**

In the elevator going to the newsroom floor, Mark was chuckling as he scrolled down his Twitter feed. Their predictions were correct. Derek Shepherd did end up on social media because of the Pelosi interview, and as his best friend and colleague, Mark wasn't going to let him forget it. "I'm retweeting this," he announced to Callie, who was standing next to him, frowning and drinking her coffee. "It's a Storify post of the best tweets about Derek last night."

"Cool," Callie said nonchalantly.

"What's up with you, Torres?" Mark cocked his head curiously.

"I just hate being the subject of office gossip. I swear, the newsroom was looking at me oddly last night."

"Because you're odd-looking," Mark joked.

Callie glared at him. "This isn't really a time to be funny, Mark."

"It's always the time to be funny," Mark countered. He tapped his phone screen then showed it to Callie. "Check this blog post out: _HANCA anchors tag-team the government_. It's by an anti-big government libertarian blogger."

"Jesus."

"I know right!" He laughed. "Hey," his voice was lowered. "Those rumours are true, aren't they?"

"What makes you say that?" Callie asked. The elevator doors slid open and they stepped out.

"I called Addison last night and asked." Mark and Addison met when Derek was dating her. They may have hooked up behind Derek's back once, twice… maybe more than that.

"What?" Callie looked at him. "So you just picked up your phone and rang Addison, who is busy running a multimedia news website, to ask about my personal life? I didn't even know you guys kept in touch."

"We're good friends," Mark said proudly. "Anyway, she confirmed it for me, and apparently you and Arizona were serious. Like, you'd go all dazed and confused every time you talked about her. Until you guys split up, of course. Then you'd spit her name out bitterly, according to Addie. That's love, I suppose."

They entered the bullpen. "I expect you to keep your voice down," Callie muttered to him.

"Don't worry about it. I'm satisfied with all the information I got." A grin remained plastered to his face. "I'm going to see if Derek's in so I can show him what I found online." He scampered off to the direction of his friend's office.

Whoever was in the bullpen at that time of the morning - very few of them - was already watching Callie. "What is it?" she demanded irritably. That's when she noticed that April Kepner, admittedly her favourite AP, was shooting nervous glances at her office door. She approached the redhead, who tensed up in an effort not to recoil. Or scream. "April," she growled. "What's going on there?"

"W-well, uhm," April began to stammer, "Arizona- She's in your office."

"Fuck." She placed her hands on her hips. The staff looked at her in a mixture of shock and fearful anticipation. "Is there any way I can leave the bullpen without her knowing I already got here?"

"Well," April's eyes moved from Callie to her office window. "She's peeking through your blinds, so I don't think that's a good idea."

"She is?" Callie looked at the glass wall of her office, and sure enough, a pair of startling blue eyes were visible in between the blinds. "Goddammit. I guess I should go in there, shouldn't I?" she asked April.

The redheaded AP nodded. "That might be the best course of action."

"All right." Callie took a deep breath. Braced herself. She nodded at April and took the steps towards her office door. She opened it and stepped inside, making sure the door was shut behind her. Arizona was seated in the chair across from her desk. "Funny that."

"Sorry?" The blonde looked at her curiously.

"I thought you'd be sitting in my chair," Callie said. When Arizona gave her a weird look, she continued, "You know, because that's what they do in the movies and all."

"Oh, right." Arizona chuckled. "I did some asking around, about where the… rumour came from."

"It's not a rumour when it's the truth." Callie settled in her executive office chair.

"But it's a secret."

Callie relented. "Yeah, that's true," she said. "The staff here are gossip hounds, I thought you'd have told them that to get them to warm up to you."

"Calliope. Out of all the personal things I could tell them, why would I tell them that?" Arizona asked. "Especially when the secret involves an anchor who has been working here years longer than I have."

"True that." Callie nodded. "How did people find out then?"

"Cristina Yang."

"What?"

"Alex told me. Cristina did her research on me." The blonde opened the case of her tablet and pressed the screen a couple of times before sliding it towards Callie. It was a set of tabs, half with her name and half with the anchor's name. "Putting the puzzle together is easier than it looks. She'd start with the Al Gore swing state cross-country tour, then connect us working in DC for different networks, and to me going to Lahore and you going to New York a year after. She might have asked Derek, who's seeing her best friend Meredith, if he knew about us. And then she filled in the blanks with assumptions."

Callie raised her hand. "Wait, backtrack. Derek Shepherd is seeing Meredith Grey?"

"Isn't it obvious? They always stand so close to each other, and sometimes I see them gazing at each other." Arizona flapped her hands aimlessly. "Anyway, yeah, it didn't take Cristina too long to figure us out."

Callie blanched at the use of the word 'us', but hope that Arizona wouldn't notice anyway. "Didn't take too long to spread among the staff either, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"Yeah, it spread like wildfire, didn't it?" Arizona asked.

"It did." Callie nodded. "So, have you talked to Cristina about it?"

"Why?"

"Because doesn't it need to be shut down? Don't you want to shut it down?"

"It's not going to hurt anybody if this story is out there," Arizona said, a hint of an amused smile on her face. "These people disseminate information for a living. You can't stop them from doing that."

"I don't care. I want it shut down," Callie insisted.

"I promised Alex that I wouldn't get Cristina in trouble, and I'm not gonna break that promise."

Callie folded her arms. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time you broke a promise."

Arizona frowned. "Callie."

"You accepted the job knowing that I was working here," Callie said. "You thought I was going to crawl back to you? Well, you're wrong."

"Yeah, I gathered that from the first time we saw each other," Arizona responded evenly. "And yes, I accepted the job knowing that you were working here, but not because of that. I figured that it was time to come home. It's been a long ten years."

"Don't I know it."

"Are you gonna be mad at me forever?"

"Probably."

The blonde stood up and straightened her shirt. "All right, Callie, have it your way," she sighed. "Just so you know, I didn't expect us to get back together, but I did expect us to be able to talk about it." She placed her hand on the door handle.

"I'm going to talk to Cristina," Callie said before Arizona could leave the room.

"Don't do that," Arizona said firmly. "Please. You're saving both of us a whole tonne of problems by leaving it alone. As long as we don't think it's a big deal, they'll forget about it. And," she raised her chin slightly, "I don't think it's a big deal."

"Okay." Callie wished she could say the same. This woman broke her heart ten years ago, and she was still breaking it now.


	5. Flashback, Part II

**Author's Note: **And we're back! Did everyone enjoy last Thursday night's episode of Grey's? I know I did. So, here's the thing: I've planned out a rough length of this story, which would be around 24-25 chapters, divided into three parts. That means there will be three more chapters after this one and Part 1 of the story will concluded. There will be a hiatus after that, but I don't know how long it's going to be. It all depends what's happening on the news and in US politics mostly, because as I said before, I like to fill up this fanfiction not just with interaction but with real-life events happening as well. It probably means that this story will finish in around May next year, which really gives us plenty of time.

I know Aria is younger in canon but I made her older for this story.

I appreciate your feedback a lot and I'm glad that so many of you are enjoying this story.

**Disclaimer: **Current events (and the people in them) mentioned in this story all true, but the characters' involvement in them is merely well-researched fiction.

* * *

**February 14, 2002, 11.05PM**

Working on Valentine's Day was just an inevitability that most professional couples had to face. But when your girlfriend didn't get off work until eleven at night, you would start to wish that it was a public holiday. No restaurants that sold expensive wine were open at that time of night, after all. At least, that was what Callie, along with another three romantic partners, were thinking as they waited in the corner of the BBC's newsroom in Washington DC.

Arizona walked into the newsroom, her expression almost instantly transforming from stressed to joyful. "Callie!" she exclaimed, skipping over to Callie and giving her a quick peck on the lips. "I'll just be another five minutes then we can head off, all right?"

"Sure, yeah, take your time," Callie said. But inside, she was fuming. The first Valentine celebration she had in years was not meant to turn out this way. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Cool!" Arizona said brightly, before skipping off somewhere else. "Hey, guys," Callie could hear her talking to her colleagues, her head jerking in Callie's direction. "Did you see my girlfriend over there? She's _gorgeous_, isn't she?"

"Callie Torres?" A man's voice asked from behind Callie.

She turned around. "Derek, hey!" she said brightly. Derek Shepherd was Addison's devastatingly handsome boyfriend - as if she would settle for anything less - who was the anchor for _DC Tonight_, BBC's late night show on American politics. Callie had only met him once before, at a small party that Addison threw in her apartment last summer. She knew from journalism circles that he was a ridiculously helpful guy, even to people who could be considered his rivals.

"What are you doing here?" Derek asked. "Can I help you with anything?"

"No, I'm okay, thanks." Callie shook her head. "I'm just waiting for my girlfriend."

Derek raised an eyebrow. "Oh, which one?"

"Arizona Robbins? She's an AP."

"Arizona? She's great. She won't be an AP for long." Derek smiled, then adjusted the strap of his satchel on his shoulder. "I'm off now, I still need to pick Addison up for our very belated Valentine's date. I trust that you're doing the same thing?"

"You got it."

"Well, I'll see you." Derek smiled, although he only used a single corner of his mouth, and Callie finally understood why people referred to him as McDreamy. "You have a good night now."

"All right. Bye," Callie said.

Arizona returned by her side, her coat on, backpack slung over one shoulder. "Let's go. I already called a cab for us."

"You had a good show tonight," Callie told her when they got in the cab. "I only caught the last fifteen minutes but it seemed great."

Arizona grinned. "I know right! We're all really proud of it. The package I produced for this show was in the B block though, so you wouldn't have seen it. But that's okay."

"B block? That's great. How come you didn't tell me?"

"They moved it up last minute," Arizona said. "And it's really not a huge deal."

"It's a deal, all right," Callie said proudly, despite her earlier irritation. "My girl's moving up in the world." She looked out the window. "Hang on, I thought we were going to Yechon." She and Arizona had found a list of 24-hour dining places in DC and decided on a Korean/Japanese barbecue restaurant. Arizona said she would take care of the reservations.

"Change of plans."

Callie squinted out the window until she discerned where they were going. "Back to your apartment? Seriously?" she asked. "Let me guess, we're also getting takeout delivered."

Arizona frowned. "Callie, just trust me on this, okay?"

They let themselves into Arizona's building and rode the elevator up to her floor. When they stood outside the door, Arizona fished a blindfold out of her backpack. "Put this on," she told Callie.

"What?" She glared at the offending item.

"Come on, Calliope, just humour me." She handed her the blindfold and watched as Callie put it on. "Can you see anything?"

"Nope."

"All right." And then there was the sound of Arizona's keys jangling, then the telltale clicks of bolts being unlocked. Callie felt Arizona's hand on the small of her back, carefully guiding her inside the apartment.

"Can I take this off now?" Callie asked as soon as she felt Arizona remove her hand.

"Yup."

The sight that greeted her was a fully set dinner table, a pristine table cloth and expensive silverware included. "Arizona." She stared at her girlfriend, simultaneously curious and in awe. "You didn't."

"Yes, I did," Arizona said proudly. "I set the table before I left for work this morning, and popped dinner in the crockpot you gave me for Christmas."

"Oh, you finally got around to using that thing?"

"It's useful for days like these." Arizona pulled a chair out for Callie. "Have a seat, I'll serve the food up."

Callie obliged. "What did you make?" she asked, as Arizona busied herself with plating the food.

"Slow cooked Cajun chicken stew over brown rice with salad on the side," Arizona said. A few minutes late, she returned with two identical plates. She set one in front of Callie, then one in front of her place at the table, before sitting down. "Check out the wine. Apparently it goes well with Cajun chicken."

Callie peered at the label. "1988 Napa Valley shiraz." She looked at the blonde. "This would have cost you a bomb. You shouldn't have."

"It's for a special occasion, and I had some extra money. Would you like a glass?"

"Let me have a few bites of this Cajun chicken first," Callie said. The first forkful she had was mindblowing. "Okay, Arizona, I didn't know that you could cook like this."

"I may have used some premixed spices," Arizona admitted, "but I added to it for more depth. Or something. I really don't know what I'm talking about."

"Well, it's amazing." Callie placed her hand on top of Arizona's. "Thank you." She reached inside her bag. "I have a gift for you." She pulled out box and slid it across the table.

Arizona's hands shook slightly as she opened the box. Inside was a sterling silver chain with a simple heart pendant. "Callie," she breathed. "It's beautiful."

Callie's heart fluttered at the amazed expression on her girlfriend's face. "I bought us matching ones," she told her. "I really wanted you to like it."

"I love it," Arizona said. "I love you."

Callie was speechless. Her eyes blinked rapidly as she tried to find the words. "Really?"

"Yeah." The blonde was nodding happily. "I_ love_ you, Calliope Torres."

At the sound of her name, Callie beamed. "I love you too, Arizona Robbins."

* * *

**August 2002, 6:30PM**

As she adjusted her dress in front of the bathroom mirror, Arizona felt the urgent need to vomit. She took two quick steps to the toilet bowl and attempted to do just that. Tonight was going to be a major first for her. She had never met any girl's parents before. She dry heaved a couple of times before rushing out into the living room to pick up her landline, dialling an all too familiar number. "Mom? Is Dad home?" she asked as soon as someone picked up on the other end.

"Arizona? Yes, your father is home. Is everything okay?" her mother asked worriedly.

"Yes, everything's fine." Normally, Arizona wouldn't be so straightforward with her parents, but Callie was picking her up in twenty minutes. "I need some girl advice, Mom, and I love you, but you're not the best at that," she said.

"Excuse me?"

Arizona didn't answer.

Her mother sighed. "All right, I'll go get your father, but I'll be listening in on the other line, because you may need my input more than you think," she told her. There was the sound of the mouthpiece being muffled with a hand, then: "Daniel! Arizona wants to speak to you!"

There were a few seconds of rustling around, to which Arizona tapped her foot impatiently to, until her father got on the phone. "Hey, sweetheart. Mom said you needed girl advice?" he sounded amused.

"Her_ exact_ words, Daniel," her mother supplied.

"Mom!"

"What seems to be the problem? Are you and Callie fighting or something?" her father asked.

"No, Dad," Arizona said. "It's just that, it's Callie's birthday next week, but her family came to DC for the weekend to celebrate. And they invited me to dinner with them."

"You told me that you met her sister before," her mother said.

"Yeah, but not her_ parents_. That's whole new territory, right there!"

"Callie seemed fine when she first met us," her father commented. "Maybe you're just overthinking it a little?"

"That's different," Arizona said, sighing. "Callie wasn't my girlfriend when she met you."

"I swear she was," her mother chimed in.

"Mom."

"All right, I'll shut up now," the older Robbins said. Arizona could hear her smile through the phone. "Honey, you're a smart, charming woman and everyone can see that you care about Callie. I think you just need to be you."

Grateful that they couldn't see her, she rolled her eyes. "What does that even mean?"

"Be who I raised you to be," her father said simply. "They'll love you, Arizona."

Arizona considered her father's words. "Okay, guys, I should go now," she told them. "Thanks for the attempt at giving advice. It was marginally helpful."

"_Marginally_?" her father asked, astounded.

"I don't know how what you guys said to me will help me tonight, but thanks for trying anyway."

"Glad we could help, honey," her father said. "Do call more often."

Her mother snorted. "Do _visit_ more often."

"I will. Love you both. Bye!" She replaced the phone back in its dock. She inhaled slowly, preparing for a big breath. She just needs to be her. She just needs to be who her parents raised her to be. As soon as she exhaled, the nauseated feeling returned. Hands over her mouth, she ran to the bathroom as fast she could.

* * *

**7:15PM**

"You smell like mouthwash," Callie muttered into Arizona's ear, as they stepped into the foyer of the Italian restaurant her parents had picked out. "You're not going to kiss any of them, you know. At least, not in the way you kiss me."

Arizona rolled her eyes. "You're a little gross, Torres," she said. "And I may or may not have emptied the contents of my stomach before I came here."

"This is a_ five-star_ restaurant!" Callie said, aghast. "Do you know what that means? It means that the portions are_ tiny_."

"I couldn't help it, Calliope. I was nervous. I am nervous."

"Why? They're going to love you. Hell, they practically know you," Callie said. "I've told them so much about you already."

"That is really doing nothing to make me feel less nervous."

"Arizona." Callie placed both hands on her girlfriend's shoulders, and looked straight into her deep blue eyes. "You're great, you need to chill, and if all else fails, talk to Aria and Michael. They're old pros. They're going to know how to mediate the conversation between you and either of my parents. Now, let's go the table, they're waiting for us." Placing a guiding arm around Arizona's waist, she guided her to the table.

"And here's the birthday girl with Arizona!" her older sister, Aria, greeted them happily.

Callie's grip around Arizona's wait tightened a little as she watched her parents stand up to meet them. "Mom, Dad, this is Arizona Robbins, my girlfriend," she said. She looked at Arizona with reassuring, gentle eyes. "Arizona, these are my parents - my father, Carlos, and my mother, Lucia."

To their credit, Callie's parents greeted Arizona graciously and shook her hand. They took their seats at the dinner table.

"We took the liberty of ordering the finest chardonnay they have before you ladies arrived," her father said. "You do like chardonnay, don't you, Arizona?"

Callie knew that Arizona preferred a red wine, but the blonde answered politely: "Of course. Yes, chardonnay's great." She even had the smile turned up to maximum wattage! Arizona was the first girlfriend Callie had ever introduced to her family, and Callie desperately hoped that her parents would warm up to her, because she wanted her to be the only one.

* * *

**8:00PM**

The wait staff had cleared away the plates from their entree. As they looked over the menus to select their mains, Lucia Torres spoke up from the end of the table: "Arizona, I see that your wine glass is empty. Would you like some more?"

Arizona smiled. "No, thank you," she said. "I think I'll just have water. I have to go into work tomorrow." A white lie, but she didn't want her girlfriend's parents to think that she was liked to drink. What kind of first impression was that?

"Ah yes." Carlos Torres looked over the top of his menu, his brown eyes sparkling cheerfully, not unlike the way Callie's did. Callie had told her that her father had been more receptive of her sexuality than her mother, so he was going to seem a bit overeager to be nice to Arizona. "Our Calliope tells us that you're a journalist, too, but not a reporter, is that right?"

"Yes, I'm a producer."

Aria leaned forward. "Arizona works for the BBC, on that show hosted by Derek Shepherd." She tapped her husband on the leg. "What's it called again, Mike?"

"_DC Tonight_," Michael answered.

"Is that so?" Lucia appeared intrigued. "What do you do for them?"

"I write scripts for segments on the show mostly, but I also interview people beforehand and brief them if Derek has asked them to appear on air, and sometimes I have to go out and shoot footage with a reporter," Arizona explained.

"Arizona does the grunt work behind the scenes. We reporters just talk and look pretty," Callie said proudly.

"Oh, it's not like that." Arizona waved her girlfriend off, but gazed at her fondly anyway. The chardonnay had numbed the nerves a little so she was able to properly see how beautiful Callie looked tonight. "You work at the White House. You don't have producers to tell you what to say, you just say things and you do a good job of doing it."

Callie nudged her lightly. She was beaming. "Don't make me blush, now," she said. She turned to the others at the table. "Excuse me, I just need to freshen up. Don't order without me!" She got up and left.

Arizona looked blankly at the two other couples seated at the table. An urge deep inside her told her to follow her girlfriend. However, the possibility of Callie needing to leave her at any point during the night was something she wasn't entertained. Plus, she was a big girl now. She could handle five minutes tops with her girlfriend's family, right?

"Are you sure you don't want more wine, Arizona?" Lucia was examining her face curiously. Her hand was on the bottle, ready to pass it to her if she said yes.

"I'm sure. Thank you for offering again, though," Arizona replied.

Lucia removed her hand from the bottle. "All right. Let me be honest with you." She leaned in closer to Arizona. At this, Carlos, Aria and Michael froze. Arizona could feel herself wanting to freeze, too. "Callie told us that she was bisexual in her last year of college, and I never understood it," Lucia told her in a low voice. "I asked myself, why would someone want to complicate their life like that? But then Callie told us that she met you. And then we met you. I finally understand."

She sighed. "Calliope's never played it safe her entire life, and hiding who she is from us is playing it safe. It would mean she never would have met someone who makes her smile like you do." She smiled at Arizona, and Arizona saw a hint of affection in it. "And for that, you can have another glass of wine without me thinking you're a drunk."

Arizona pushed her wine glass towards Lucia, who picked up the bottle and poured the wine. "If the system sorts itself out and acknowledges your love for each other, I want grandchildren," she said. The rest of the table visibly relaxed.

"Lucia," Carlos chuckled, "I've already told Calliope about that."

"Right," Lucia said. Her eyes met Arizona's again. "I'm just telling you this so we're clear, yes?"

"Clear on what?" Callie had returned. "Are you guys picking on my girlfriend? Mom?"

"We weren't. Promise," Lucia said. When Callie turned to her father for confirmation, she winked at Arizona. "Shall I call over the waiter so we can order our mains?"

* * *

**11:45PM**

Callie had gone back to Arizona's apartment after her birthday dinner. She was very pleased that her mother seemed to like Arizona. She had to wonder how the blonde did it. "What did you say to my mother? Did you give her a woman-to-woman talk?" she asked as she washed her face in the bathroom.

"Nope. We just clicked, I suppose," Arizona responded vaguely from the bedroom.

Callie exited the bathroom, patting her face dry with a towel. "In any case, I'm glad that you and her get along," she said. "She freaked out when I told her about me being bi, and she didn't talk to me until I had finished J school." She removed the towel from her face. "Holy cow."

Lying on top of the covers, stark naked except for a pair of glasses, was Arizona. She was apparently reading something on her laptop, but the sly smile on her face showed that it was nothing more than a prop. "What's up, Calliope?"

Callie sat on the edge of the bed, careful not to touch Arizona. It wasn't because she thought the blonde was explosive. She was afraid that if she did, she was going to explode herself. "Nothing," she said. "It just looks as if my birthday has come early, with you charming my parents, especially my mother and-"

"_Calliope_." Arizona's voice was low and breathy. "Stop talking about your mother." She shut her laptop lid and reached over the slide it under her bed.

Callie's breath hitched at the view of the blonde's backside. Arizona did have a fantastic ass.

Arizona turned around to face her again. "Well?" She raised an inquiring eyebrow. "Take your clothes off, birthday girl."

Nodding eagerly, Callie hurriedly obliged.

* * *

**April 2003, 7:00AM**

She and Callie have been been together for well over a year - they've been living together for four months - and she was definitely her _person_. She wanted to share all her good news with Callie. Yet for this particular piece of news from an email she read last night, Arizona thought it would be better to share it with someone else first: her brother Timothy. To her luck, it was their prearranged video conference date early the next morning. Which was why she was seated in the dining room of her apartment early in the morning, peering into her laptop screen.

"'Zona, you there?" Timothy's face came on the screen. Unlike Arizona, his hair was a sandy blonde, closer to their father's hair colour, but his eyes were the same shade of blue. He appeared as if he hadn't had a shave in a while, but his dimples were still prominent underneath the facial hair.

"Hey Timmy, how are you going?"

"I'm good. Quiet day here, we're mostly cleaning out all our stuff. And by cleaning, I mean burning. Thanks for video chatting with me," Timothy said. "I realise that it's like, the crack of dawn over there."

"Not exactly." Arizona laughed. "It's a few hours past that."

"Right." He laughed too. "How are you going, sis?"

"Great," she said. "I have some news for you, actually."

"What's that?"

Arizona craned her neck to look at her bedroom door, which was still firmly closed. She lowered her voice anyway. "The BBC offered me a job as a producer in Lahore. If I accept it, I start in October."

"Lahore, as in Pakistan?" Timothy clarified.

"Yeah," Arizona said. "They're expanding the bureau over there because the war's expanding, too, so they're going to need a lot more hands on deck."

"It's dangerous out here, Arizona, trust me."

"You don't think I know that, when I spend most days worrying about you?" Arizona asked him. "Look, I don't plan to be out in the war zone. It's a desk job."

"We all know things like that go down the toilet real quickly when it comes to war." Arizona knew that he was referring to the assumption that the War on Terror would be quick and bloodless. How quickly that was in tatters.

Arizona broke eye contact with him. "I don't even know if I'm taking the job yet."

"Yeah? You're going to talk to Callie about it first, right? And Mom and Dad, too."

"I haven't told Callie yet," Arizona admitted.

"What?" Timothy demanded. "I thought she was _the one_ or whatever. This is a decision you need to be consulting her about."

"Says someone who's never been in a serious relationship before."

"Neither have you," her brother retorted. "Until Callie. She's your exception. That's why you have to tell her!"

Arizona folded her arms. "You sound like a romantic comedy, Timothy, I think the homesickness is getting to your head." Okay, she was being immature, but she was not ready for the conversation about the conversation she eventually had to have with Callie.

"Shut up._ Tell her_."

"Tell me what?" A voice asked from the direction of the bedroom.

Arizona froze as Callie walked over to the dining table. "Nothing."

Callie snorted as she stood behind Arizona and leaned forward so that she was on camera. "Hey Tim, how's Kabul?" she asked cheerfully. She had met Timothy when he was fortunate enough to get a ten-day furlough over Thanksgiving last year. To Arizona's delight, they got along supremely well.

"Callie." Timothy grinned. "I don't think it's as bad as being stuck with my sister."

"Don't be like that," Callie said, laughing as she watched Arizona pout. "Your sister is delightful."

"Pfft. Yeah right."

"I don't appreciate you two making fun of me in front of me," Arizona said.

"Aw, babe." Callie stroked Arizona's hair. "It's just something you have to get used to."

"You're planning to stay for a long while, aren't you, Callie?" Timothy asked her, even though his eyes were trained on Arizona. Not that Callie noticed that.

"Definitely." Callie was telling the truth. Her hands brushed lightly over Arizona's shoulder. "If your sister will have me, of course." She kissed the top of Arizona's head happily. "I'm going to get changed for the gym. It was nice talking to you, Tim."

"You too, Callie." Timothy gave her a half-wave, half-salute.

Callie gave Arizona's head another kiss before walking to the bedroom. When the bedroom door shut, Arizona gave her brother a look. "Goddammit, Timothy. You would be in so much shit if you were here," she muttered.

"Tell her soon," was all Timothy said.

In true Arizona Robbins fashion,_ soon_ came three months later.

* * *

**July 2003, 8.00PM**

Addison Montgomery, whose career as a freelance journalist flourished, thanks to her ability to establish useful connections, found a slot in her busy schedule to have drinks with an old friend - and she had news.

"Wow." Callie examined the shiny ring on the redhead's finger. "This is gorgeous."

"It's a family heirloom. Derek's grandmother owned it and bequeathed it to him in her will," Addison explained with a presumably aloof shrug. Her fond gaze at the ring didn't escape Callie, though.

"Wow," Callie repeated. "Look at you, the future Mrs Shepherd. Getting your life together, huh."

Addison chuckled. "I'm actually thinking of keeping my last name. Professionally, at least," she said. She patted Callie on the arm. "But what about _you_? You're in a serious relationship, you're living in a swanky apartment, you've been promoted to senior White House correspondent for HANCA… things are going well for you too."

"Well, the swanky apartment is owned by Arizona's parents. They bought it because when the Colonel did a stint at the Pentagon he didn't want to keep living in hotels during the weekdays. We just pay utilities for it," Callie told her. "And Arizona got transferred from the ten o'clock team to the _BBC World News America_ team, so our work schedules almost sync up. So I guess you were right, things are going well for me, but maybe I'm just lucky."

"God, you still get that same goofy look on your face whenever you talk about her."

"Goofy?" Callie frowned.

"It's a good thing, don't worry!" Addison told her. "It's just that, I haven't seen you often since we were on the press bus, but every time you bring Arizona up, you smile like nobody's business."

"I can't help it." Callie looked down timidly. "I've never loved someone this much before."

"Yeah, you guys are pretty solid," Addison said. "But you're still going to miss her when she goes to Pakistan, right?"

Callie swallowed. "What do you mean? She's going to Pakistan?"

"She hasn't told you?" Addison took a long sip of her drink. "Shit."

"Addie." Callie's voice was stern. "You need to tell me, because she obviously hasn't."

"I can't believe she hasn't told you." Addison looked around nervously. "Derek told me a while ago that Arizona got offered a transfer to the Lahore bureau. It's a two-year contract, apparently."

"Did she accept?" Two years with Arizona being off in a conflict zone? Callie didn't think she'd survive it. "Come on, Addie. I didn't have access to this information!"

"As far as Derek knows, not yet," Addison responded. "But she must be deciding soon, because the contract starts in October."

"All right. Good." Callie started shuffling in her purse for some dollar bills. "I'm going to go home and talk to her. I think this is a decision that I should have input on."

"She probably had a good reason for not telling you," Addison said weakly.

"Bullshit," Callie said. "I'll call you soon, Addie. Thanks for tonight." She threw the bills on the table, gathered her things and left.

* * *

Arizona was on their bed, doing some work on her laptop, when she heard the front door swing open. "You're home early!" she called out. Her girlfriend was there almost immediately, shoes on and everything. "I didn't expect you back until around eleven." Arizona tried to hold herself as casually as she could, but she couldn't resist showing off her summer "work from home" outfit to Callie - a tank top and boyshorts which hugged her ass perfectly. But then she noticed the grim look on Callie's face. "Is everything all right?"

"Addison told me that Derek told her that," Callie took a deep breath, "you were offered a two-year contract to work at the Lahore bureau. Is this true?"

Shit. Arizona felt lightheaded. She was meaning to tell Callie about it, but she didn't expect her to find out this way. "Yes." She should have listened to Tim that morning.

Callie's next question was said in a dangerously quiet voice. "How long have you been keeping this from me?"

"I got the offer in April," Arizona admitted.

"April." Callie looked like she had just been punched in the gut. She blinked rapidly. "And when were you planning to tell me?"

"Soon." Arizona watched Callie's expression morph from sadness to rage. "Calliope, I realise I should have told you earlier."

"_No shit_, Sherlock. You should have told me as soon as you got the offer!" Callie said indignantly. "You're potentially moving halfway across the world for two years and you thought that wasn't something that you should share with someone you're in a serious relationship with? Or maybe I'm not that important to you."

"Of course you are!"

"Then don't you think that this is something the two of us should discuss? I have tonnes of questions! If you're taking the offer, what happens to me for two years? Am I still living here? Are you going to help me out in paying the bills? How often are you going to visit? Can I visit you there?"

Arizona stared at Callie before calmly answering, "I took the offer. I'm leaving in November, after my birthday. You can still live here if you want and you can email me if you need any help in paying the bills so I can wire the money over. You probably won't be able to visit me, but I do have three weeks annual leave, which we will spend together."

"You're really leaving?" Callie's shoulders slumped. "We don't get a chance to talk about this?"

"We're talking about it now," Arizona said. She wanted to hug her girlfriend so badly, but she restrained herself. "And we can talk about it all night if we have to."

"No." Callie's voice was defiant. She strode to the wardrobe and pulled out an overnight bag, which she stuffed a selection of clothing into. She disappeared, presumably to go into the bathroom, where Arizona could hear her gathering her toiletries. She stormed back into the room, zipping the bag up as she went. "We will talk about it, but not tonight."

"Where are you going?" Arizona asked helplessly.

"I'm going to check myself into my dad's hotel," Callie replied. "I might stay there for a few nights because I'm just so mad at you right now. But we will talk. I just- I just need to go." She left the room, making a beeline for the apartment door.

"Calliope, wait." Arizona ran out of the bedroom to follow her. "I love you, and I'm sorry."

"Arizona." Callie smiled as best as she could at Arizona, though her eyes shone through the tears that have welled up. "I love you too. But I don't want to be near you right now, okay?" She turned the doorknob, opened the door and left Arizona standing in the living room, staring at her retreating back through the doorway.

"I'll wait for you, Calliope. I promise."

* * *

It took Callie three nights before she decided that she was ready to face Arizona again. To face their future - or lack of one - together. She didn't know what awaited her when she returned to the apartment though. She refused to answer Arizona's phone calls, text messages and emails, so she didn't know if the blonde would have reached the end of her rope waiting for her.

When her key still fit in the lock of the apartment's deadbolt, she let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding, expelling an ugly inkling she only realised she had. Her relief, however, was short-lived.

The entire apartment was empty. It looked like the kitchen hadn't been touched for days. There were no containers in the fridge. Callie checked the bathroom and noticed that Arizona's toiletries were missing. Finally, she went into the bedroom. There was a note on the bed.

_Callie,_

_I've been so used to living with you that when you left, I couldn't handle being alone in this apartment. I don't know when you're coming back, but I called my mother the morning I woke up by myself and she asked me to come to Quantico so we could talk about my job transfer, among other things. I will be staying here until the end of the week because I got time off work. If you get here before I do, please wait for me. I want to talk. If I get here before you do… then you probably won't be reading this note._

_Just so you know, I've always wanted to be transferred overseas. It's a great move career wise, and I've expressed interest for a Middle East transfer before I realised we were serious. Being completely in love with you is just going to make the move to Lahore more difficult._

_My feelings for you haven't changed. I hope you could say the same about your feelings for me._

_Love always,_  
_Arizona_

Callie crumpled the note up into a ball. Wiping hot, angry tears from her face, she grabbed more clothes from her wardrobe and stuffed them in her bag, purposely leaving the used garments in the clothes hamper by the dresser. She scribbled a terse note to Arizona and left it on the kitchen counter, along with her keys, before stepping out the door again. She made arrangements to stay at the hotel indefinitely.


End file.
